A photofeed is a web feed

Web feed

A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an aggregator...

 (whether RSS

RSS (file format)

RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format...

 2.0 or Atom

Atom (standard)

The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating web resources.Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a...

) that features image

Digital image

A digital image is a numeric representation of a two-dimensional image. Depending on whether or not the image resolution is fixed, it may be of vector or raster type...

 (JPEG

JPEG

In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....

, GIF

GIF

The Graphics Interchange Format is a bitmap image format that was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web due to its wide support and portability....

 or PNG) enclosures

RSS enclosure

RSS enclosures are a way of attaching multimedia content to RSS feeds by providing the URL of a file associated with an entry, such as an MP3 file to a music recommendation or a photo to a diary entry. Unlike e-mail attachments, enclosures are merely hyperlinks to files, the actual file data is not...

. They provide an easy, standard way to reference a list of images with title, date and description.

Photofeeds are to images as podcasts are to audio (MP3

MP3

MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

, WMA

Windows Media Audio

Windows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...

 or OGG

Vorbis

Vorbis is a free software / open source project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation . The project produces an audio format specification and software implementation for lossy audio compression...

) files.

Possibilities

A photofeed can contain:

• all pictures in an online album
• all images tagged with the keyword "sunset"
• an Amazon.com
  Amazon.com
  Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
  
   wishlist
• a list of houses for sale
• a list of desktop backgrounds (used by a screensaver)

Providers

Photofeeds are offered by image sharing sites like the following:

• Flickr
  Flickr
  Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
  
  
• Incredimazing
• Pixable
  Pixable
  Pixable is a photo discovery application and company headquartered in New York City. The application aggregates and ranks photos across different online photo repositories allowing users to search, browse, edit, and access all the photos connected to them in one location.-History:Pixable was...
  
  

Photofeed aggregators

A photofeed aggregator is a piece of software that accepts subscribable RSS 2.0 syndication feeds and downloads or precaches higher resolution images (rather than thumbnails) for later viewing, such as when offline. There are not a tremendous number of photo aggregators yet. (please add)

• iPhoto
  IPhoto
  iPhoto is a digital photograph manipulation software application developed by Apple Inc. and released with every Macintosh personal computer as part of the iLife suite of digital life management applications...
  
   from Apple, Inc.
• ION
• Zencast Organizer from Creative
• Google Photo Screensaver (Windows XP and Vista). Available with Google Pack
  Google Pack
  Google Pack was a collection of software tools offered by Google to download in a single archive. It was announced at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, on January 6. Google Pack is currently only available for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7...
  
   or Picasa.

See also

• Photocast, a similar but incompatible implementation by Apple Computer
  Apple Computer
  Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...