Spectives: an image-only way to track your favorite sites

Spectives is a new way of following sites visually, by filtering new images as they're posted. You can subscribe to one site, or create a themed collection. When the sites update, your collection will update. Clicking on any image takes you to the source page, so you can read the post that goes along with it. It's a simple idea, and the execution is well-done in terms of both usability and visual appeal.

You don't have to sign up for an account to search or browse collections, but it does have advantages. You can make your own collections and add favorites to your Spectives homepage as tabs for easy access. Although Spectives seems like an alternative to RSS, you can also get RSS feeds of your collections if you prefer to take in your visual content that way. The only minor issue I have with Spectives is that it frames sites when you click through an image to see the original post. I don't think anyone likes toolbars, so an option to open in a new tab instead would be outstanding.

UPDATE: Spectives does actually have an "open in new tab" option, if you're logged in. You can find it in your settings.

Tags: collection, image, spectives, visual