VOO's Blog

It’s the dawn of a new era for sharing photos. We are proud to introduce…

Today, Facebook is a powerful social utility that allows you to connect with your friends and constantly see what they are up to. We’re all guilty of stalking other peoples’ photos. Don’t deny it! Facebook also harnesses a lot of creative collaboration via social discourse, groups, events, and fan pages. However, there is a missing link between the two; within the realm of photos, there is little to no group efforts!

To fill the void, we built PhotoVoo!, a Facebook application that aims to catalyze more collaboration, more creativity, and more good times.  Our application invites users to create and participate in PhotoVoos!, which are group photo albums focused around a theme, a common interest, a shared experience, a question, or any idea you could imagine. With user-submitted photos and an assortment of playful interactions, the possibilities are endless. Friends can gather their photos from last weekend’s raging party all in one place, while complete strangers from all over the world can compare the views from each of their windows.

Within a PhotoVoo!, you can upload your best image, vote for your favorites, and watch as the most popular photos rise to the top. If you really like a photo, write a positive comment. If you don’t like a photo, keep browsing and we are confident that you’ll stumble across some that you like. As the community grows, participants with the best photos are recognized and rewarded. The PhotoVoos! you start, the photos you upload, and the awards you earn are all organized for your convenience, thus encouraging friendly competition between you and other users. Check out the screenshot on the left to see what your awards page could look like.

We’ve tried to make the application simple, aesthetically clean, and user content-focused. This should be refreshing for those of you who have explored the many applications Facebook  has to offer. So, install PhotoVoo!, find something that tickles your fancy, and get after it.  There’s gotta be a photo buried somewhere in your collection that the world will love!

I don’t know about you, but I sure am a social media addict. (All of us in the office are to some degree.) If I think about the amount of time I spend online in a given week, I’m sure it would rival the amount of time I sleep. Yeah, I know, time to find a support group.

That said, I think that active online lives can motivate us all to live richer “real” lives. Whenever we go out—provided we have cameras and good memories—we produce content (photos, quotes, stories, etc.) and our lived content can turn into online content, quite easily as you know. Imagine you coming home after a ridiculously fun night with your friends; you have pictures and jokes floating around in your happy little head. Time to update your Facebook profile, right? It’s kinda like living life so you can tell a story about it later. And that’s not such a bad thing, really: there’s incentive to live more interestingly. Sure, you can be zen and live in the moment—just make sure that moment is exciting!

Okay, so what’s the point of all this sociocultural-media-pscyhobabble? We here at VOO! think it’s a powerful thing to be able to share an experience in real life and then bring it into your digital life. We don’t have to look down upon online life for seemingly replacing or stealing away from real life. We should instead recognize it as an integral part of real life; it gives us the means and the space to continue celebrating our real life experiences, immortalizing them, capturing them and allowing us to easily savor them all over again.

Now, I really should move. I’ve been sitting in this chair in front of this screen for too long. Time to go out and live. And then tweet about it.

All right, kids, I know no one wants to read text upon text upon text. So we’re gonna ruffle things up a bit. So far, we’ve been dividing our blog entries into four categories: 1) News and Updates, 2) Props Go To, 3) A Taste of Our Inspiration, and 4) Around the Office.

But let’s make our blog a bit more—now, let’s be honest—fun. Something akin to feeling like this guy:

I mean, who doesn’t love ice cream cones on a sunny day? Right? You know what I’m talkin’ about. Ice cream melting and dripping down your hand, you lapping up every last drop of richness.

So that’s what we want to be for you: your ice cream cone, just online.

We want you giggling.

We want you excitedly eating it all up.

We want you smiling, thinking, “Man, that was goooood.”

Maybe we’ve already been too wordy thus far. Hmm. Feel free to send us an email at info.voo@gmail.com, ranting, raving, giving us your two cents (or more) of what you think we should be doing. What do you want to see on this blog? What did you come here looking for?

Now that that’s covered, let’s catch you up on some recent VOO news:

Redesign

We’re rethinking our whole VOO world. How do we show relationships between stuff people post? How do we engage you, our beloved users/VOOzers? How do we make the VOO experience alive and fun? There’s a lot of head scratchin’ going on, lots of diagrams growing on our walls, lots of conferences and hours-long brainstorming sessions.

But just you wait! Sooner than you know it a new site’s gonna go POP! right at ya, and you’re gonna be wide-eyed and amaaaaazed. Really.

New Blood

Elliot (username VooManChu) has joined our team! He’s a PR rockstar, and on his first day managed to flood our inbox with Twitter direct messages and new followers. Whoa. We’re looking forward to Elliot shining with his mad skillz. Yes, that’s skillz with a Z. He’s that good.

On the same note, Aayesha will be leaving us at the end of the month (she’s moving back to Boston). She’s crazy, end of story. I mean, who in their right mind moves to the northeast just as winter’s about to start?!

Live Events

We’ll be in San Francisco’s Union Square on Thursday, October 8th! Think afternoonish, 1pm-4pm. Come out and write stories with us, take some Polaroid photos, and just let some of those creative juices flow. If you’re cooped up in an office all day long, might as well shake those legs out, grab lunch, and join us!

That’s all folks…

Stay tuned. And if you REALLY want to stay tuned, follow us on Twitter! Or become our Facebook fan!

Hugs.

News & Updates

We had our first pair of live events last week! Wowza. On Thursday night (Sept 3rd) we set up shop at Bean Bag Coffee House during the Divisadero Art Walk. Then lovely, sunny Saturday (Sept 5th) rolled around and we spent the afternoon in Dolores Park. During both occasions we were equipped with Polaroid cameras, notepads, pens, drawing pads, markers, and cards with cute little buttons of our avatars. We asked a bunch of friendly folks to start/contribute to stories and drawings, and it was a pleasant surprise that nearly everyone we approached was willing and even excited to take part!  If you want to see what cool stories, art, and photos came of both events, visit our events section and explore!

And maybe you’re wondering, “Hmm, I wonder when they’ll be out next?” Well, don’t you worry, honey; we’ll be out in full swing soon! Have any suggestions for where we should go next? Want to have 2 young, attractive, social additions to your next house party? Email us and let us know!

Props Go To…

…the photobook Dolores Park Doggies!

Here you’ll find all the cute furry faces that we met Saturday at the park. San Francisco seems to be teeming with dogs, even though we are a big city and finding dog-friendly accommodations for our lovable companions is sometimes difficult. In Dolores Park, you’ll see dogs bounding about, leash free and lovin’ it.  Go and visit the photobook and check out all the adorable, big-eyed darlings.

(And if you want to contribute to another dog-themed photobook yourself, upload a pic to How Much is that Puppy in the Window?. We only need one more photo to complete it! Be that one!)

A Taste of Our Inspiration

This week’s shout out comes from Chris, our VP of Product. Chris really diggs Vimeo, and so do the rest of us.  Not only is their design clean and beautiful, but their site has become home to a rich, creative community. And—big thumbs up for this—they’ve also managed to consistently support all the media uploaded on their site. Hell, you there are even HD options! They have content categories, user ratings, statistics, and everything you could ever want in a user-generated-content community.

And once you read their own back story, you’ll love ‘em even more. See for yourself:

Around the Office

Even though we were on duty while at Dolores Park, we still made sure to take the time to enjoy the sun and the company of good friends. Here’s Will, one member of our marketing mafia, kicking around a soccer ball with some friendly strangers.

Some take-home lessons from a day in the park:

• Pack for all seasons. Yup, you’ll need that sunscreen, the scarf, and to be safe you might as well bring the jacket too. It’s San Francisco; 20 degree changes in weather are almost as certain as the sun rising.
• Be wary of liquid intake. Who would pass up a day to lounge on the grass with good friends, a picnic lunch laid out, your dog leash-free and happy? Well, just be sure not to drink too much, unless you’re willing to wait in line for the grimy public bathroom. Too bad the bushes aren’t so obscured.
• Arrive while everyone still has a hangover. The park is usually crowded on weekends, but that’s usually starting in the afternoon once people have rolled out of bed and had their coffee. So if you get there by 11:00am, you’re bound to get the spot you want.