Zooomr tries again with Mark III

Photo-sharing site Zooomr began a second try Monday to launch its third-generation photo-sharing Web site, attempting to combine social-networking features with unlimited photo storage and, eventually, the capability for photographers to sell their own pictures.

Zooomr's new Zipline chat and status feature

(Credit: Zooomr)

The new site, when available, features a Twitter-like interface called Zipline that lets members tell their contacts what they're up to and hear the same from those contacts, according to a video demonstration by co-founder Kristopher Tate. It also lets members join groups and subscribe to discussions.

Zooomr had attempted to fire up the Mark III site in March, but instead bugs and migration issues kept the site was unavailable for nearly a week. The start-up rolled back to the earlier version and postponed the upgrade.

Founder Kristopher Tate estimated the new relaunch would be done within 24 hours. He and Chief Executive Thomas Hawk appeared on a late-night video feed Monday holding a two-man launch party and answering questions. (Hawk likes both Pacifica and Rolling Rock beer, has a bachelor's degree in political science, and gets "in sort of this Zen state when I'm out there with the camera shooting.")

Zooomr has had a rocky few months. Shortly after the relaunch snafu, its investor pulled out its money when the start-up's cash flow turned positive. That's delaying some new hardware purchases.

Then, just before Monday's second relaunch attempt, a database hard drive crashed and Tate and Hawk had to drive from San Francisco to Silicon Valley in the middle of the night to repair it.