I’m the type of person who, when I see a picture that has interesting content, I search about it even more.  So I end up having dozens of opened tabs at once, searching and researching details about the photos.  And sometimes, frustratingly, I end up opening bogus sites – a very, very daunting thing.

But with the constant change and innovation in today’s web technology, photo-viewing will see a new light, literally, thanks to Luminate, formerly called Pixazza.  The renamed company is revolutionizing photo viewing with the integration of an application.  Today, Luminate launched one of the very first platforms for image applications.

With this exciting new platform, Luminate opens a new world of image apps, breaking down a wall and bringing flat, static images to life. Online images become more than visual stimuli – they become a gateway for accessing rich and relevant content across the web. The apps available on the Luminate™ platform will allow consumers not only to conduct their favorite everyday online activities such as shopping, sharing, commenting and navigating directly from the images, but can also facilitate entirely new services made possible by the development of apps specifically for images.

“Image apps transform images from static pixels into interactive experiences,” said Luminate CEO Bob Lisbonne. “Just as phones evolved from merely voice calls to smartphones with apps, now consumers can enjoy relevant apps inside every online image. The explosive use of images fueled by mobile, social, and cloud computing trends sets the stage for Luminate’s pioneering new image apps platform.”

So how does this work, you ask?  An image with the Luminate icon indicates that the image is interactive.  When a user mouses over the image, different applications related to that image will appear, such as sharing the image across social networks, information about the photo (like if it’s an item for sale), feedback about the image, and other related facts about the article (whether it’s a good buy or not or if there are similar cheaper brands).  Beats having to do all the research work by yourself, right?

The image application will have a variety of key categories that ease in the consumer’s use.  Categories include: Commerce, Information, Social, Organization, Advertising, Navigation, Public Service, and Presentation.  Luminate’s platform currently offers such applications as: unique Twitter Share, Facebook Share, and Email Share apps that give consumers the power to select precisely what they want inside an image and share it with others.  There’s also an information app called Annotation that allows publishers to quickly and easily tag any spot within an image and add information relevant to that spot.  A commerce app called Products enables consumers to mouse over the image and interact with tags on the picture, and the Advertising app offers publishers a seamless way to place relevant advertisements within an image.

“The reason images remained stagnant for so long is because it is remarkably difficult to contextualize their composition and link them to other pieces of relevant content across the Internet,” said James Everingham, CTO of Luminate. “We were the first to develop the technology to overcome these complexities, turning images into an even more valuable asset. With our platform and the introduction of image apps, we believe that the entire Internet can become connected in a more meaningful way.”

Luminate has already signed up many top-tier partners, including NBC’sAccess Hollywood website, CBS’ Entertainment Tonight Online and The Insider, Yahoo’s OMG, Hearst Magazine’s Redbook and House Beautiful websites, MSNBC and TV Guide’s online site.

With the deluge of photos coming from smartphones and cameras, inundating our online world, there’s countless businesses looking to contextualize (and monetize) it all.  Adfusion, the content-based online advertising platform, unveiled its new Panoramic ad format.  Each panoramic ad includes customized content that provides context for accompanying creative elements, which can include click-through promotions, optional video (of any length), and custom widgets such as photo galleries, maps or other interactive elements. Additionally, optional social media integration drives fans and followers to the advertiser’s social media content.