If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

Gizmoz new offering makes me feel good about some of our Voki features.  Yup, I now have another avatar on my sidebar...   a photorealistic 3D avatar created from a photo.  You can even comment on a Gizmoz.  Commenting on an avatar?  Really... wow, I wonder where they got that?  Still, kudos for adding that feature after the Voki launch.  I also like the way they did it without a popup.  We'll have to add that ourselves.

Still, I have to ask... what do people think about photorealistic avatars?   Frankly, I think they're a little creepy.  We've added them as part of the Sitepal service, but I've gone from using my custom drawn one, to a cartoon one, to one that's even more cartoony?  I love my little bigheaded cartoon Voki guy and I think that one of the best parts of an avatar is that it's a representation of you... not actually you.  We have this debate internally a lot and I've never been a big fan of 3-D photo conversion and am just fine sticking to my flat little 2D avatars.

PS...   New commentary on StumbleUpon and Mahalo at Walken's site.