TweeShot launches TwitPic-for-screenshots, wants to become "pause button" for the Web

TweeShot has launched as a simple way to share screenshots of web pages via Twitter: a sort of TwitPic for screenshots. That’s in the short term anyway. Longer term, the service, put together by a team of Spanish developers, bloggers and designers, wants to become the “pause button” for the web by offering an API so that other applications can tap into the screen capture or, more specifically, webshot functionality.

With the fast moving nature of the dynamic and realtime web “sometimes a pause is necessary”, say the site’s makers. “TweeShot lets us share concrete ‘moments’. Moments that most probably will have already changed seconds later.”

Here’s how TweeShot works today.

After logging in via Twitter, naturally, you simply enter the URL of the web page that want to take a screen capture of (it would be nice if there was a bookmarklet). And, optionally, write a tweet to go with it. Hit preview and the site generates said ‘webshot’, although this can take up to 20 seconds, apparently, especially if there is a queue.

Once you’re happy with the results you can click share and a link to the TweeShot will be sent to your Twitter feed as well as showing up in the main TweeShot stream and your TweeShot profile page, very much like TwitPic and a host of other picture sharing services for Twitter. Users can also annotate parts of a webshot with comments, which is pretty neat. You’re also given the option not to share on Twitter at all meaning that TweeShot can operate as a standalone service.

The service is free to use and I’m not entirely sure what the business model is beyond advertising, although it’s possible that TweeShot could charge for commercial use of its API, which would make sense, and possibly roll out premium features, such as more storage space and/or private sharing.