Zoomorama Blog

Zoomorama Closes Down

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We are sorry to announce the closure of Zoomorama and the suspension of its services, with immediate effect. You can no longer upload new zoomoramas, but existing zoomoramas will remain available for some period of time.

Zoomorama has not found its market. Even after increasing sales significantly for Darty.com, our sales cycles did not shortened. The balance of income to cash burn had become untenable and we have taken the decision to close.

Thank you to all our users whose creativity we enjoyed, and whose encouragements sustained our efforts. It was a pleasure to work with a great team on a novel concept.

For those of you looking for an alternative solution at this time we recommend here some of our best competitors: Prezi.com, Ahead.com, MagicToolbox.com,  and Openzoom.org. Good luck to them all.

 

Let me leave you with one of my favorite zoomorama : Van Gogh paintings in High Definition. With zooming you have the experience of the master’s stroke, and the details of his technique. It is full of emotions, of his presence, and ultimately that's what inspired the launch of Zoomorama.

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Nous sommes au regret de vous annoncer la fermeture de Zoomorama et la suspension de ses services, avec effet immédiat. Vous ne pouvez plus télécharger de nouveaux zoomoramas, mais les zoomoramas existants resteront disponibles pendant une période de temps indéterminée.

Zoomorama n'a pas trouvé son créneau commercial. Même après le succès avec Darty.com d’un accroissement des ventes les cycles de vente ne se sont pas raccourcis. L’équilibre revenus/coûts n’était plus tenable et nous avons dû prendre la décision de fermer.

Merci à tous nos utilisateurs, dont nous  avons apprécié la créativité, et dont les encouragements ont soutenu nos efforts. Ce fut un plaisir de travailler avec une équipe de talent, sur un concept novateur.

Pour ceux d'entre vous à la recherche d'une solution alternative, nous recommandons ici quelques-uns de nos meilleurs compétiteurs: Prezi.com, Ahead.com, MagicToolbox.comet Openzoom.org. Bonne chance à eux.

Permettez-moi de vous quitter sur un de mes zoomoramas favoris : des tableaux de Van Gogh en haute définition, dont ce merveilleux autoportrait. Avec le zoom vous décrouvrez le coup de pinceau du maître, et les détails de sa technique. C'est rempli d'émotions, de sa présence, et cela a été source d’inspiration pour lancer Zoomorama.

CHANEL publishes its online catalogue with Zoomorama

CHANEL launched this weekend their new spring/summer collection catalogue designed as a infinite collage of pictures powered by Zoomorama.

More than 130 pictures for a total of 500Mb of images viewable at once, and all of them zoomable so you can enjoy every detail of the fabric or the accessories.

You can download every images in its native definition. You can also view an item of interest by simply clicking on a small icon which takes you directly to the product page on Chanel.com

The site is multilingual, thanks to our XML document, including Russina, Chinese Korean and Japanese.

Here is the link: http://www.chanel.com/fashion/8#8   (see "catalogue").

The direct link is : http://www.chanel-latinlover.com/

The collage was designed directly by CHANEL's designers using the new ZoomCreator Alpha for MAC.

Zoomorama Significantly Increases Conversion Rate at Darty.com

When shopping in the real world the first thing you do is touch the product you are considering, the second thing you do is check the price, and the third is to touch the product next to it to convince yourself that your first choice is the right one.

So it is critically important to offer your e-shoppers with an electronic equivalent of holding the product in your hand. Only Ultra-Zooming does the trick. Namely, the user experience needs to be :

- in a large window to offer as large a view space as possible,

- be as fluid as possible so the user "suspends disbelief", like in a good movie

- offer multiple views for a complete sense of the product, because you don't know what the shopper wants to check out

- be simple, that means no 3D viewer, no complex interaction, just straightforward zooming action that everybody is familiar with (at least every owner of a camera). 

The result for Darty.com, the largest electronic retailer in France, was a 25% increase in its conversion rate over the holidays attributed to Zoomorama. That +25% for Refrigerators, Dish Washers, and large white goods. But they also experienced +80% for SLR Cameras (!) due to Zoomorama.

Moreover, 78% of their users stated that ultra-zooming was important in their purchasing decision.

So what are you waiting for ? +25% gain in sales due to Zooming, using the existing images, and with no impact on their bandwidth or their servers load. Add very high customer satisfaction, and Zooming offers the perfect e-commerce solution with an immediate ROI.

Contact us so we can work our magic for your e-commerce site.

Server upgrade, Site off-line for Wednesday January 27, 2010

UPDATE:

Servers upgrade is done. Service is back to normal except for some issues with ZoomExpress that should be resolved tomorrow, Friday. Thank you for your patience.

La maintenance des serveurs est terminée. Le service est de retour à la normale, sauf pour quelques problèmes avec ZoomExpress qui seront résolu demain, vendredi. Merci de votre compréhension.

(French Below)

ENGLISH
 
A scheduled maintenance will be held on our servers from Wednesday, January 27th to Thursday, January 28th early afternoon.
During this time, the zoomorama.com website will not be available, upload and update of new zoomoramas will not be possible.
 
Of course, the service remains available for the display of existing contents.
 
The purpose of this temporary interruption is to improve our service and the speed of access to our contents.
 
We are sorry for this disagreement.
 
Thanks for your understanding.
 
Kind regards
 
Zoomorama Team



FRENCH

Une intervention de maintenance programmée sur nos serveurs aura lieu du Mercredi 27 Janvier au Jeudi 28 Janvier début d’après-midi.
Durant cette période, le site zoomorama.com ne sera pas consultable, l'upload et  la mise à jour de nouveaux zoomoramas ne seront pas possibles.
 
Bien entendu, le service reste assuré en ce qui concerne l'affichage des contenus existants.
 
Cet arrêt provisoire a pour but d’améliorer notre service et la rapidité d’accès à nos contenus.
 
Nous nous excusons par avance pour ce désagrément.
 
Vous remerciant de votre compréhension.
 
Cordialement.
 
L’Equipe Zoomorama

IZIS, the Great Photographer Rediscovered

In 1951 the New York Museum of Modern Art exhibited five French photographers who were inventing a new "street view" style of photography. Their names are now famous: Brassaï, Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau et Willy Ronis, and Izis being the least famous among them

The city of Paris is not making us "rediscover" this amazingly talented photographer with a wonderful exhibit of 270 prints, and a beautiful online exhibits with full HD images produced with the zoomorama technology. The online exhibit also contains a great video wall with ten YouTube videos placed side by side that you can view one after another without ever changing page. 

For anyone interested you can get the XML source code to check out how easy it is to program such a mini-site. Simple press the "s" key while your cursor in on the zoomorama.

For the full description of the exhibit, running from Jan 20th until May 29th 2010, go to this page (French). Beautiful Online Design by Daniel de Fuenmayor.

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