Appatic

Twtimage (TweetImage) is a Twitter focused photo search engine for photos shared in Twitter and hosted in Twitpic, TweetPhoto, img.ly and yfrog.

Searching for photos in Twitter has always been a fragmented task based on the preference of a specific Twitter Image host. Each Twitter photo host got it’s own search from where to search and supposed social search engines like OneRiot have not enabled any kind of media filters so you can search for photos.

So Twtimage is a solid idea for a startup. As Twitter has grown enough that it is now mainstream and there is lots of content that can be filtered out. The most shared kind of content in Twitter after Links are Photos. So a Twitter Photo Search Engine is a sound idea.

I just wish that Twtimage would not fall as plain and uninspiring as it is right now.

For starters they have followed the formula for a niche search engine to the letter and just added most searched keywords and latest photos searched as the homepage.

And that is pretty much it. There is no Top Twitter Photos of the Day and Week, there is not a effective way to preview the searched photos but to being redirected to the original landing page of that photo.  Finally, there is really not much content because it depends solely on contextual search and there is no way to figure out how long they index the photos being searched.

While contextual searching is the obvious first step, they could easily add the ability to tag your searches and then index them to make the results of people coming in later a lot better.

Given it is about what is being shared at Twitter, Why there is not a filter by host or a rank filter from most seen to most shared (if the photo in a tweet has been retweeted). That and some data leaderboard (most twitter photo active users, etc) would improve the reasons to use it and user engagement.

But those are just suggestions of what could be done. What does truly bothers me are 3 things:

1.-No TwitGoo support.

Why, is there a issue with that host or the omission is a deliberated decision?.

2.-No proper cross-browser support

Looks different and not all good across browsers. Not having proper IE7 and IE8 support is just not wise IF you do want to have a successful website. I have said that time and time again and will continue to state it as that is how things are in real world terms. Another reason for having good IE support is that it will also improve its general compatibility with Mobile Browsers.

3.-A very generic design.

If you don’t really got a good name or domain. At least have a good looking website.

Conclusion

While twtimage leaves a lot to be desired and it needs to  severely improve. The idea behind it is sound because it does makes for a good startup idea. And if you want to search for photos being shared in Twitter. twtimage is one of the very few ways to do it.

If it improves enough, they could have something good going and hey, Twitter Search came from a third party. And up to now, there is no way to search for photos in the official Twitter search. I wish there was. But at least there are now things like twtimage to pick up the slack for those wanting that option.

Linkage

Twtimage

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*Update 1*(12/10/10): Looks like the site is now dead or the domain got squatted by a porn site.

*Update 2*(28/10/10): Please check this post on Ploy.co as an alternative to Twtimage.

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