Faceroller one-ups Twitter with photos and geolocation

Faceroller is the latest Web app from the folks at PopMinds who have done such Web marvels as the Web 2.0 stripe, tartan, and reflection generators. It's a delightfully simple microblogging service that combines Webcam photography, text, and geolocation. Users can use their Webcams or the cameras on their mobile phones to take a picture, add a short message, and send it out to the world. What sets it apart is that it automatically figures out where you're posting from and adds it to your message.

Besides the Web and mobile front ends, you can simply send photos to a special e-mail that posts them (sans location). You can link it up with both Flickr and Facebook to cross post your photos into albums. The photos are transferred instantly, which I found to be a really marvelous way to turn your Flickr photo stream into an unabashed photo booth. The Facebook integration is a little smarter, simply putting your photos into a separate album and making note of it on your news feed every time you upload a new shot.

Like Twitter, there's an exploratory social component. There's a public feed with everyone's shots. You can also create your own list of Faceroller friends to follow, who can follow you as well. Missing, however, is a way to skin your personal page, or change the orange and blue color scheme.

There are several other microblogging services that incorporate photos, but few employ the geotagging. Zannel, Poodz, and Twitxr let you take and post pictures with small bits of text. Of the three, Twitxr is the only one with location guessing using cell tower and Wi-Fi positioning.