I’ve stumbled across more than a few new software gadgets and websites lately, so I though I’d share them.

Kristopher Tate, a 17-year old programmer has created a competitor to flickr in 3 months. I visited the site and found that since word has gotten around, it’s currently being moved to handle the volume. But I’m curious and will definitely follow up to check it out.

From the article I read, it’s very similar to flickr, but with improvements, like a large amount of metadata that can be associated with each photo, including audio notation and “geotagging”. I’m not going to reiterate the entire article, but if you’d like read more and see some screen shots, head on over to Tech Crunch.

You know, I need more addictions like flickr in my life!

I’m not a big “social” user of IM’s… but meetro lets you incorporate AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo into one Instant Messenger. But it does more; it allows you to chat with other users based on proximity to your location and/or interests. I think it’d be kinda cool if you were traveling and just wanted to hang out with a local who might like Moby or photography or origami as much as you do.

It’s still pretty new, so I tried it out and the closest person to me is in Chicago, but I’m gonna keep it on the “back burner” and hope it grows

Another awesome service that I’ll definitely be going back to is KeepVid.com, a site that allows you to download streaming videos from services like Google and YouTube. Just enter the URL of the streaming video, and it’ll allow you to download the video to your hard drive.

Now, I have no plans to redistribute videos or otherwise misuse them, but sometimes I find a video that is so funny or great that I just wanna keep it on my computer so I can watch it later! With most streaming services, you’d have to save it in your bookmarks and visit the site again to view it; but with this I can keep my own copy!