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17 Year Old Creates Flickr Competitor
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Tue Mar 14, 2006 12:26 AM
from the any-kid-in-a-garage dept.
from the any-kid-in-a-garage dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch has an article up on a new Flickr competitor called Zooomr. The interesting thing about all of this that it was developed in only three months by a 17 year old and to top it all off, the site is currently localized in 16 languages."
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17 Year Old Creates Flickr Competitor
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So? (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Re:So? (Score:4, Funny)
(http://www.unordnungsamt.de/)
When I was 17, it was a very good year. It was a very good year for small town girls and soft summer nights. We'd hide from the lights. On the village green. When I was 17.
Re:Are YOU making a contribution? (Score:5, Funny)
uhhh...down?
Re:Are YOU making a contribution? (Score:5, Funny)
Competition is nice, but . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Competition is nice, but . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://eoban.com/)
Awesome, but not so unique (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.cacrew.com/)
Not to gloat, but I've created some pretty usefull projects and technologies in my time comperable to this one, just as simple side projects. However, most of them don't make it past a few months of development for one simple reason: I can't financially support it. As I just noticed when I tried to load the Zoomr website, the ammount of money needed to buy a server that can support such a community is overwhelming, especially for someone in the age group of 15-18 who's primary concern to buying lunch every day.
I would love to see more projects of this calibur come from this same younger generation, and I would love to be part of such projects. But getting ones foot off the ground is the first, and hardest step towards this success.
Kristopher Tate, the 17-year-old who make Zoomr, will undoubtedly become noticed by companies looking for such ambitious programmers. But he got lucky; the rest of us aren't so fortunate.
Re:Awesome, but not so unique (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://forkforge.org/)
So, I won't bow down to this kid from a technological standpoint.
But, shit. He did his own thing, and he managed to get the word out about it. My hat is off to him as a self promoter. Nobody ever heard of me, so he pretty much has me beat from that angle... Even if his website is dead.
Lots of guys like me and the parent poster have a reasonable amount of skill with technology, and did so at a rather young age. We all had neat ideas. He made his idea. That deserves respect. My real time strategy game, for example, still only exists as notes on scrap paper, and the start of a header file for a prototype...
Re:Awesome, but not so unique (Score:4, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Wednesday March 01 2006, @12:17PM)
I don't mean to take away from the fellow who's created Zoomr. More power to him and my hat's off to him. Let's stop short of automatically giving him an adult measure of respect, though. He wouldn't have been able to do what he did if he'd been spending his 5 evenings/week after school bagging groceries. Let's not start flogging ourselves remorsefully over wasted youth. The bottom line is opportunity--which most of us never really have.
Re:Awesome, but not so unique (Score:5, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Tuesday November 01 2005, @09:41AM)
I'm not sure this kid getting notice is a good thing for him...
I'm not sure how fortunate he will be. If Ebay can get sued for the "Buy It Now" feature, how long will it be until Flickr [or another compnay] sues the 17yr-old for patent infringement? [Or maybe they will wait until he turns 18]
That is, when his thing takes off and starts to compete, I can see Flickr sueing him into smitherenes. [I didn't read the article:] And since he probably hasn't taken the necessary steps to hide behind his own cooperation, this kid will be paying for more than just college loans...
Re:Awesome, but not so unique (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://localhost/)
Re:Awesome, but not so unique (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://tru7h.org)
The company that makes one of the most advanced search engines in the world could surely duplicate such software, and get it done quickly.
Brand recognition though, you can't whip that out whenever you want.
You misunderstand what makes an entrepreneur... (Score:5, Insightful)
The ability to recognise a great idea and take it
from idea to reality is a tremendous skill. Its harder
than you think. Or to put it another way - just
how many million dollar concepts have you turned into
reality recently? Hmmmm???
You may be as good a coder as this guy - but he took
some great ideas (that you didn't have by the way)
and developed them to reality. Interface with OpenID -
of course! Sound bites, google maps, etc etc.
Obvious now we know.
One important difference: (Score:5, Funny)
pr0n (Score:5, Funny)
Re:pr0n (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://pdatabase.dyndns.biz/ | Last Journal: Saturday June 04 2005, @11:50AM)
Each picture consists of one or more actions.
Each action consists of of exactly two people (both of which can point to the same person record).
Each person record is broken up into "static" (things unchanging throughout their life, e.g. birth name), "daily" (things true for a short period of time, e.g. color her hair was dyed that week), and "instant" (things only true for that split second the photo was taken).
The data model is much more complete than this, and more importantly, I've found a way to actually collect the metadata.
Let people in for free. Have them go through a custom webapp, collecting the metadata (clicking on the photo with the mouse, to grab the pixel color value for skintone), maybe as few as just a few pictures a week. In exchange, they get to search for free.
When finished, it should be possible to search only for pictures with just one girl, whose legs are spread exactly 57 degrees in a "sitting up" pose.
Like I said, you wouldn't believe just how much metadata I figure it's possible to collect.
Anyone want a free account?
But is it... (Score:3, Funny)
Hopefully Not This... (Score:4, Funny)
(http://nojailforpot.com/)
Anything is possible when you turn off the TV (Score:2, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Wednesday November 05 2003, @03:12AM)
When I was 14 I was doing programming for a Fortune 500 company; when I was 15 I wrote and designed the accounting system for my city's municipal water company; when I was 16 I wrote my own BBS system, which got the attention of Bell Atlantic who then contracted with me to develop a prototype of one of the first online electronic yellow page systems. By the time I was 17, I had written software for Disney, the United Nations and plenty of other companies. I really don't think I was special... I just made the most out of my time and resources. If I had unlimited access to a Playstation or 500 channels of television when I was a teen, I'd probably be working for an insurance company or a restaurant instead of being self employed and successful doing something I truly enjoy.
Re:Anything is possible when you turn off the TV (Score:5, Funny)
If it helps, I don't think you're special either.
Re:Anything is possible when you turn off the TV (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Anything is possible when you turn off the TV (Score:4, Interesting)
(Last Journal: Wednesday November 05 2003, @03:12AM)
Someone modded my post a "troll". That's really sad. I know there are people here who are big gamer fans and I didn't mean to malign those who like to obsess over sitcoms and shit like that. It's just not what I did, and I honestly think if my parents hadn't made an effort to not expose me to much TV during formative years, I wouldn't have had the skillset I have now. I'm very grateful to them for it. Some here, apparently resent it, but that's not my fault. I'm only trying to empower others, and not really brag about myself... I'm just saying, you can do what this kid has done; I know because I did stuff like what he's doing too. You just have to use your time and energy more wisely. I don't think playing Halo several hours a day is going to get you a great job... your milage may vary... but don't take it out on me.
Re:Anything is possible when you turn off the TV (Score:5, Insightful)
If you had rigorously collected and analyzed data comparing TV to non-TV kids, that would be an insightful or informative post.
Re:Anything is possible when you turn off the TV (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you're totally unqualified to talk about opportunities for underage professionals without connections. Connections are more valuable than experience, education or even skill.
People get bitter when they hear stories like yours because they're the guys and girls with the CS degree who wind up working in tech support while some bigwig's kid causes them grief with buggy software. When they were that age, they were lucky to get a job at Burger King... and it's not because they didn't use their time more wisely.
Take all the advantages your parents give you, and never be ashamed of that, but never look down on people because they didn't succeed at jobs you didn't even get on your own.
Re:Anything is possible when you turn off the TV (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/~Spy+der+Mann/journal/ | Last Journal: Saturday November 10, @01:50AM)
I think I got your idea, but you didn't quite hit the nail on the head. See, I had cable TV and i've been enjoying videogames since I was a kid. But I learned to program nifty stuff like you, and I cracked my first videogame when I was 12. By 18 I cracked my first shareware app (curse those register screens
I really don't think having videogames or cable TV will make a difference. What really matters is the education and the interest in Science that you're raised with.
See, my dad always bought me science books when I was a kid. Science for kids, that is, with nifty graphics and all that. I really have to say his effort was worth it.
About your talent, I really think you're a gifted individual, there are people who even with good circumstances around them, have trouble learning to program a "hello world". A potential problem with gifted people is that if they don't recognize their gifts, they might end up judging others too harshly, crushing their own self-esteem. Don't make that mistake.
Zooomr (Score:3, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Thursday March 03 2005, @10:38AM)
Linking users to faces in a picture sounds like the perfect blend of Facebook and Flickr, hopefully without the obsessive/compulsive behavior found on the Facebook social network. I wonder how long before Flickr turns up the heat??
Alternative link (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~fuquawa | Last Journal: Sunday January 08 2006, @01:32PM)
Re:Alternative link (Score:5, Informative)
(http://eoban.com/)
Google ID? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Google ID? (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.yafla.com/dforbes/ | Last Journal: Tuesday September 27 2005, @10:43AM)
It looks like it's entirely bogus - you enter your gmail account and it emails you a password each time you want to access the site. You recover the password, enter it on the site, and that's your logon. Not really sure what it has to do with gmail, as the same mechanism could apply to any email address.
Sounds pretty bogus.
But Flickr is hackable (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.christopherculver.com/)
It would be hard to truly compete against Flickr, since it offers a great deal of power that the user can find behind the simplistic interface. O'Reilly has already released Flickr Hacks [amazon.com] . I doubt that this kid's creation is half as hackable.
The only thing that I don't like about Flickr is that it allows one to upload an enormous amount of photos each month, but limits the free account to three albums.
Re:But Flickr is hackable (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Sunday August 20 2006, @01:37PM)
i18n is cool, but easy (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.outshine.com/)
Localization systems are really easy once you know how to do them. I used to be intimidated by such things, but then I started making phpBB mods. I saw that the phpBB localization system was basically a set of arrays of text strings that gets loaded depending upon the user settings. Then the array is used as variables to drop in the appropriate text. I've since seen some better systems, and mostly I'm impressed with how simple good developers can make it.
I put some of that into practice for Agitar, a company whose site is available in English & Japanese. I don't speak Japanese, I just added some tweaks to a Movable Type system, and voila, two fields per entry. I do the English, and any employee who speaks Japanese will enter a translation. I suspect that I can create a basic i18n framework for PHP in an afternoon.
What would be really cool would be if he did the translations himself. Does he speak 16 languages? Or did he sit with Babelfish or Google, and nurse some automated translations into something sensible? That's the step that takes talent or hard effort. I would be impressed if he did that completely without outside help. For that matter, if he has a system in place for people to upload translations, have them verified, and be automatically put into effect, that would be impressive too. I tried such a thing, but I just couldn't find good ways to deal with the character sets and launder data that is so open-ended, without human inspection.
Re:i18n is cool, but easy (Score:4, Funny)
Re:i18n is cool, but easy (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Friday February 21 2003, @08:57PM)
Good i18n and l10n is quite difficult and expensive.
A new kind of lock-in? (Score:2)
(http://grendel.dyndns.org/)
I know that flickr has a helpful, open API; I just wonder if it's enough.
Mitch (Score:3, Funny)
(http://www.sheerdev.com/)
That is all I have to add to this conversation. Carry on.
It seems nice but... (Score:1)
Imageshack is the best (Score:4, Informative)
If you need to show something fast and don't want the hassle then Imageshack [imageshack.us] is it.
I use it all the time. Fast and covenient.
is this a PR stunt? (Score:2, Interesting)
In the terms of service: "By accessing the web site Zooomr (hereafter known as the "Web Site"), a service of BlueBridge Technologies Group..."
While both the summary and TFA seem to focus on it being developed by a 17 year old in three months, the website has job postings. The article seems to gloss over the fact the entire project is sponsored (owned) by some company. Is this a case of sensationalistic journalism? This doesn't seem like a case where someone hacked it out of their basement. It seems unlikely the company picked it up AFTER development started since no mention of the company is made in any journal entry. So if the company is backing the project financially, am i the only one who finds it odd that it is not mentioned in any journal entry? It's a little weird that he's the face of the project, but it could be a PR move. It definintely doesn't add up the way the article's author seems to want to imply.
Re:is this a PR stunt? (Score:5, Informative)
(http://beta.zooomr.com/photos/kristopher)
I'm working at Meetro right now so that I have a chance at living in the Bay Area. That aside, Zooomr is a solution of BlueBridge Technologies Group and is in the midst of becoming incorporated.
Just so I can get this in without having to post multiple times, I am in-fact 17 years old.
Kristopher Tate
cto & founder -- bluebridge tech / zooomr
If it's that easy, sell your Google stock... (Score:3, Insightful)
I often agree with both of these statements, including for Google, Y!, MSN sites mentioned in Slashdot stories. They're all a bunch of Javascript. Wowee. That's a pain in the butt, but it's not innovative. There's some server technology that's pretty cool behind Gmail and the like, but as time goes on, those bottlenecks will be solved in a more commoditized way.
So my question to you all is, why would you own Google or Yahoo stock for more than five minutes, to ride up the next big push? It seems like there's virtually no long term value in any website's technology. Surely someone else will take the idea and improve on it at some point -- it's already happened several times over in the last 10 years. We're already seeing the fast decline in the quality of Google's results, and here come a new wave of search engine rivals knocking on the door. Impossible? Ask AltaVista.
Or do we just live in a world where brand name is all we're investing in anymore? It's has to be branding we buy because no one actually creates products for the ages. When someone creates a "one click ordering" button, that's what they get patented. Owning the rights to a button on a computer screen like inventors once owned the phonograph, or film emulsion... that's what buying stock is about.
I remember when a Coke used to be a nickel, dammit.
Yahoo paid good money for flickr (Score:1)
Don't be fooled by the high-volume message (Score:1)
(http://www.feanix.com/)
17 year old creates internet bubble 2.0 webpage! (Score:5, Insightful)
My main complaint, a similar complaint from the first bubble, is a huge waterfall of sites that implement only a few unique ideas. Back then it was internet stores and advertising, today it is tagging, blogs, and letting the user interact with the website.
Different times (Score:1)
oh... so what ? (Score:2)
Again, I don't want to diminish or lessen this guy's achievements, I just feel that if we praise him, we should praise everybody else with such and similar and better achiements also. But we'd probably have to dedicate an entire site for these kids
Anyway, I congratulate him for managing to get on slahdot
So? (Score:2)
Recipe for success (Score:5, Funny)
(http://purl.org/hritcu/homepage)
Age? (Score:2, Interesting)
How did my picture land on the site? (Score:1)
(http://www.wziwyo.com/)
Good (Score:1)
Ok... (Score:1)
Lets stick with tradition... (Score:1)
Three months? (Score:2)
(http://www.big-bubbles.org.uk/)
Lets do a survey (Score:2, Interesting)
Not exactley impressive is it, if you did it for your dissertation you'd be lucky to get a 2:2.
As the guy above said, must be nice to have financial support.
Gimme a minute... (Score:2)
Won't he be sued for this? (Score:3, Insightful)
Won't he be sued by Yahoo?
Some interesting PDFs on the BlueBridge site (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.kangaroobox.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday October 31 2002, @09:32PM)
http://www.google.com/search?hs=akR&hl=en&lr=&cli
What Language (Score:2)
When I was 17... (Score:1)
(http://www.sceiron.com/)
What impresses me... (Score:5, Insightful)