No Other Explanation Necessary 4: Désillusion
via Gatochy’s Flickr stream! Subscribe to it, and check out some of her blog work also. <3 (Might want to check it out using [blackr], too.)
Bookmarklet to Enhance Your Flickr Experience
Traipsing about my collection of RSS links, as I am oft wont to do, I discovered one labeled Blackr. Despite the obvious Web 2.0 name, it struck me as curious and I proceeded.
Blackr is described as a way to view Flickr content without all the noise of navigation, comments, and various whatnots. There weren’t any examples provided, but the general concept was sound.
I was presented with four bookmarklet options: black background, black background with a white border, white background, and white background with a black border. I chose the bookmarklet for viewing pictures with a black background and a white border.
As a test, I hopped over to Gatochy’s photo stream, a personal favorite Flickr gallery. Picking an enchanting photo of Anna May Wong, I clicked the bookmarklet with my breath held for impending browser doom. (As an Opera user, I tend to be a little skeptical of neat new add-ons, as most of them are designed with Firefox in mind.)
The results?
Wow! The photo really stands out with the crisp border and the dark background, like putting diamonds on black velvet. I imagine that this tool would be most useful for people who have to find photos for a specific purpose and need a lightbox approach to viewing Flickr images. People who really prefer a minimalist approach to image searching, and people who like fancy web toys might also find a lot of use for this bookmarklet.
It’s also got keyboard shortcuts available to change the background/border, and to turn the effect off so you can continue on your Flickr-y way. (The 1,2,3,4 options listed on the Blackr site don’t work for me, as they’re already assigned as Opera shortcuts.)
All in all, a really neat bookmarklet tool for Flickr fanatics! I give it a 4 out of 5.
