Instant picture conversations with Radar - the Application of the Week

This week’s application is Radar, a phenomenally well put together service that enables picture conversations online and on-the-go.

If photo sharing site Flickr is Web 2.0, then Radar is Mobile 3.0. Or something like that… The entire service has been conceived to run from your mobile, not as a bit-part of the overall experience. Yes there’s an online element for those sat at desks, but Radar is all about mobility. You can easily upload photos from your handset and all your subscribed friends can instantly see — and crucially, comment — on the photo. You can then easily see who’s been commenting and reply back and, before you know it, get into a dialogue with your friends about the picture. All by phone. That’s the way to do it.

If you’re not up for making a public comment on a photo (e.g. “Is that the guy from accounts that you slept with?” — a friend of mine recently posted this on another friend’s Flickr, thinking it was an email-response form, not good) you can make Whispers between each other — effectively private comments. Smart.

You can get Radar on your mobile web browser very easily. Radar.net and you’re done. But for the enterprising types, there’s a java application with support for a range of handsets — here’s a look:

I particularly like the immediacy of the service – it’s getting huge usage from the upwardly mobile generation-now crowd across the planet. It’ll work with picture messages — all you need to do is text a picture to your unique radar address (something.something@radar.net) and they’ll do the conversion right-away. Or, if your phone/operator offers it, simply send the picture in an email. You can also enter the letter ‘P’ in the subject of your mms/email to specify that you want the image immediately set to private.

I was playing with it this morning with my new Helio Ocean handset. Had I been besieged by friends on Radar that morning, I’d have got a notification on my AIM account (which is also live the Helio handset – Radar sends email updates as well) to tell me that my friends were uploading pictures or adding new comments. This is a very useful feature. I keep forgetting to check out friends’ Flickr pages and I often miss Facebook galleries if I haven’t logged in recently.

It’s not just pictures though — you can whack video to Radar. (Note to self, I must check if they’re connected with ShoZu.)

I’m going to try and meet Radar’s CEO, John Poisson, shortly, to find out more.

If you’d like to add me as a friend on www.radar.net, get me at username ‘ew4n’.