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Getty Images, the photo licensing giant turned “new media” company has recently unveiled two slick new tools to show they are not going to allow Animoto own the cool photo / slideshow world (at least not until Hellman & Friedman allows the acquisition switch to be turned back on).

The first tool is called 27 Letters and is a desktop widget that allows the users to “surf” around a visual experiece of the top photos, illustrations, and other visual media on the web.  If you’re bored, 27 Letters is not a bad time suck; then again, neither is staring at your screen saver.  The application is impressive, thoughtful, and contemporary, but in a somewhat self serving way as it’s purpose seems to be to have users create links to and share Getty content. Overall, the 27 letters app portrays the creativity and excution abilitiy of a solid, experienced dev team.  Hipness aside, it would be much better served as a web application rather than a desktop app. Surely the 27 Letters iPhone app will be released soon – or will they just buy Animoto along with it’s cool new iPhone app?  

Next on the Getty slick application list is one that’s also a heck of a lot like Animoto.  It’s called Punch-O-Matic and allows users to create cool slideshows put to music using photos from the PunchStock photo collection.  This one is a browser based app and the music is really killer, having been sourced from Getty’s high end stock music library Pump Audio.  The music is cool and the slideshows are even cooler.  Users can select from an array of transitions and music to create their own custom slide whows.  You can even overlay your own text, and the finished presentations can be shared and embedded.  Rhetorical question here – Why in the world would you want to create a slideshow with someone else’s stock photos and not your own photos?  It’s clear that this is just an experiment that will likely lead to the unveiling of Getty branded app that will allow users to include their own photos.

In the past, the highly acquisitive Getty would simply acquire Animoto, and they still may; however, to this day, it seems that Getty wants to show the world what their talented developers can do and just wait till Animoto has perfected it’s product before swooping in for the kill.  Either that, or their new private equity owners have placed an embargo on acquisitions for the time being.  Nevertheless, the two companies would make a perfect fit.

Posted in: 27 letters, Animoto, Getty Images, Pump Audio, punch-o-matic, stock music