FlickrStorm enhances picture search

There’s a flurry of sites out there offering intelligent or just clever mashing of ideas and functions. A mashup is a combination of different Web functions, and the most common form on the Web is one that mashes maps with other information. (See UrbanSpoon as one example, where maps and restaurants are nicely mashed).

FlickrStorm — http://www.zoo-m.com/ flickr-storm — provides a nice mashup for images found on the popular photo-sharing site flickr.

Enter a tag or search term and the site produces an array of square thumbnail images. By scrolling across the images, you can display them larger and find out who the photographer is, and, of course, get directed to other images he or she posted on flickr.

Like the Google utility Picasa, FlickrStorm also offers a “tray” function to download images later. An “advanced” feature filters images by license types, including freely used images — which is a great way to insure you are in compliance with copyright and fair use provisions.

Smart Search is a regular feature of .TXT.