You had to install additional server software, write a lot of custom code, and / or give up a lot of control over your application. While Flash (and even AJAX - more on that later) have been capable of delivering large images via progressive downloads for a while, neither have supported it natively. A few days later, Lee at The Flash Blog showed off a collection of DEA photos on Zoomarama, saying that it illustrated how Flash can do the same thing. Haven't we seen this before?įor example, when TechCrunch called the Hard Rock demo the Coolest Bit of MIX Keynote One, commenters were quick with the 'Yawn, seen it before' talk.

The unimpressed folks point out that there are other Flash applications that handle this, too, like Zoomify and Zoomarama. Some folks say it's incredible, and some say they were impressed when they saw it in 2005, was called Google Maps (and zoomed all the way from outer space to their house). The reactions to this have fallen into two groups. Haven't I seen this before? Google Maps, Zoomify, Zoomarama, etc? In a nutshell, the site allows you to smoothly zoom from a wide angle display to an extreme closeup on items such as Bo Diddley's guitar. Fair enough, I'm hosting the video at Viddler, using a Flash based player. I've seen a lot of comments from folks not wanting to install Silverlight to see if it's worth installing Silverlight. Since it's a visual experience, I recommend watching the video fullscreen. Well, it should install smoothly for you unless you're an Adobe Flash staffer who might not want it to install smoothly - can't help you there. Go ahead browse the Hardrock Memorabilia site - Silverlight 2 installs in seconds, and doesn't require a reboot or anything. To frame the conversation, I'm going to include a video, but you really should just browse the site instead so you can see the smooth transition between the zoom levels, etc. It's really the kind of thing you have to see words don't capture it well. It takes advantage of a new Silverlight 2 feature called Deep Zoom, which allows for smooth zooming and panning over a large collection of large images. The Hard Rock Memorabilia site got a lot of press MIX 08 TechCrunch called it the coolest part of the MIX keynote.

Microsoft deep zoom download