Well, Microsoft has zapped us again with another übercool photo gizmo. It’s called Photozoom.

You have to get a Windows Live logon to make Photozooms, but anybody can then view them over the web.

Please note that the first time you try to view one, you may have to install Microsoft Silverlight (Microsoft’s super-clone of Adobe Flash). If none of this means beans to you, don’t sweat it. Just click to install Silverlight, if you like. I seriously doubt that it will cause your computer any discomfort. You may as well go ahead and do it, because more and more juicy things are going to be showing up on the web that require the Silverlight thingamabob.

This morning I walked out in the street and took this shot. I then went to the Photozoom site and created an account (no funny business here – just give it a name). I then made an ‘album’ of one photo and gave it a name. Then I uploaded the photo. They even give you the code you need to imbed it in your blog or website as I have done here. It’s all so easy that I was a bit dumbfounded. I kept thinking, “Something’s not right here. This is going too well.”

Here is what it looks like:
The controls are very intuitive. Click and drag on the image to move around. Use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Try the little button that says “Full Screen Mode” when you mouse over it. It’s incredible!According to the speed of your connection, you may have to wait a few seconds for the image to clear and become sharp. When zooming, you’ll eventually come up against the limits of my camera to form a sharp image on only a few pixels.I’ve heard some people say that the Windows Live thing is not very interesting, because there’s not much there. I beg to differ. If you dig around there is some amazing stuff. I showed you Photosynth a while ago – now Photozoom. What next?

Just keep it coming.