i have always gone to deviantart for my image finds. guess this is the new place to go =)
FFFFOUND!
http://ffffound.com/
FFFFOUND! is the place to go for visual inspiration. Members "post" images from all over the web, and other members may add these to their own "ffffound" repository. Popular images show up on the front page.
A member can add images to their account in two ways:
1. Find an image on the web and "post" it to ffffound!
2. Find an image already on ffffound!, and add it to his/her own account.
So a member's "found" page shows all images added in both ways; while a member's "post" page only shows images added in the first way.
Each image on ffffound! has the following information:
1. The source webpage where it was found
2. The source image URL
3. When it was posted to ffffound!
4. The number of people who have saved it to their accounts, and...
5. The list of usernames of those people
The first username in that list is the person who first posted it to ffffound!, and all the subsequent users are considered "followers" of that user.
Each image on ffffound! also displays a number of "related" images. These related images are automatically generated by the website based on image bookmarking data (it's kind of vague, but I guess this means, images that are liked by the same users are considered "related").
Each member's found/show page displays the list of his/her recent "followers" and "favourite users". These lists are automatically generated by the website, based purely on the image bookmarking data. Members can't manually or voluntarily control these lists.
The quality of the images on ffffound! is supposed to be kept in check by the fact that it's an invite-only website. Each member has 3 invites to give away-- no more. If you want an account, you have to find someone to give you an invite. (Sorry guys, I have no more invites left!)
I've explained all of these things because I think it all makes for a very, very interesting kind of social network. It's a big game of numbers. No adding of contacts, no putting images in sets, no image descriptions. There aren't even any tags to help sort out the images. Members simply post images and practically everything else (popularity, relationships between images, relationships between users) is automatically generated by the system. Less is more. The focus is kept on the visuals, and I appreciate the no-frills, clutter-free approach.
You may wish to compare this to we heart it, a ffffound! alternative with added features (tags and everything) and no required invitation to join. I like the frills too. I don't wish to pit one site against the other and say which is better or worse. They just have different approaches, and I guess each kind of approach serves its own purposes.
