(1888PressRelease)
April 01, 2008 - Portraits of people from around the world combine to form the first online photo jigsaw puzzle – this is the idea behind www.openpuzzle.com. The website launched in May 2007 currently shows the faces of over a thousand people from 34 countries. Brothers Daniel and Fabian Just envisioned a giant jigsaw puzzle of portrait photographs and this concept led them to create this online portal. The two founders have incorporated numerous innovative ideas into openpuzzle.com.
“We want to give people an opportunity to not only show their faces but also to influence the big picture, the puzzle as a whole. At openpuzzle.com, everyone can upload and place their portrait at an arbitrary position on the puzzle, join friends, family or colleagues, form creative groups. And using our portal is completely free of charge”, says Fabian Just. Behind every picture there is a profile containing basic information that you can fill in as a member, only as much as you are willing to disclose. Using this calling card, it is possible to get in touch with other users very easily but every member’s privacy remains intact. Your own e-mail address generally remains hidden to everyone else and you can deny permission for other users to contact you.
A powerful search function allows members to find people matching very specific criteria, e.g. you could search for profiles of people from your local region, for members of a certain age or gender etc. Finally, the so-called Puzzlemarks allow you to pinpoint particularly interesting areas of the puzzle, remember their location for later use or show them to other members.
An open portal for everyone, world-wide
The process of joining openpuzzle.com and deciding your place on it are 2 very simple steps. Every member can upload and place their photograph to an arbitrary position on the jigsaw puzzle. At any time after joining, they can change their placement or upload a different picture. Registering at openpuzzle.com also creates a profile, like a calling card, which is linked to the member’s photograph. The profile contains basic information that its owner is willing to disclose like name, age or location. There is also space for additional fields like links to a user’s own website or online contact details like icq, iChat etc.
The search function allows very specific criteria to be used, like e.g. the vicinity of one’s own location, former classmates, age range or name at birth. Or one can simply browse the puzzle and look at the pictures of people from all around the world. Bookmarking interesting spots is possible with Puzzlemarks, which can also be published to other users. Using openpuzzle is completely free of charge.
