About ThingLink

"Image is not illustration, it is the platform."

— Ulla Engeström,
ThingLink CEO and Founder

ThingLink, a provider of image interaction tools, changes how people interact with photos by transforming them into a navigational surface for search, commerce, and social connection.

ThingLink technology lets businesses and consumers connect their images to anywhere on the Internet. 90+ billion photos online offer rich opportunities for in-image links to engaging user experiences that will transform how we interact with images.

16 reasons to ♥ ThingLink

No ads, no limits!

We don't clutter your tags with ads.

Tag anything you like, such as: people, things, links to other sites and music!

Reliable and safe

We handle your large loads of queries efficiently and reliably.

Powerful tag editor

Tag images right from your own web site!

Earn money

Make money with tags by using the Amazon Associates program.

Fits your own design

Our clean lined tag design will not take the focus from your own site.

Works on mobile and tablets

ThingLinks can be seen on modern mobile devices and tablets, such as iPad and iPhone.

Play music from tags

With SoundCloud tags, you can play music and sounds right from tags on imags.

It's free!

We are committed to keeping the standard version of ThingLink free for our users.

Easy to setup

Use your Facebook account and follow the step-by-step instructions.

Weekly statistics via email

We support your blogging tool

Super-easy setup for Wordpress, Blogger and Tumblr -users. Works on other blogging platforms too!

Image copying

Users can copy images from your site with tags to their own site.

(Almost) instant support

Get help on how to use ThingLink on our support forum.

Make public images

You can let others tag your images by making them public!

Real-time analytics

Tune your campaigns and tags with tag statistics that update in real time.

Views for ThingLinked images

Total number of views for ThingLink-enabled images:

11+1 ideas for using ThingLink

Create party flyers and invitations

See how Paper Garden Records uses ThingLink in their flyers.

Illustrate cooking recipes

See how Chez Pim uses ThingLink for illustrating cooking recipes.

Reveal interior design and object details

Link shops to products in your images

Bring your shop onto images using Amazon affiliate links or Savalanche (in Finland).

Enhance editorial content

See how the German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost uses ThingLink to enhanche their editoral content.

Present fashion

Link your images via affiliate programs

Use your favorite link based affiliate program, such as TradeDoubler or Amazon, to gain money from links in ThingLink tags.

Tag people in photos

Tag people in party images and link conference attendees to their Twitter and Facebook profiles.

Highlight causes and raise money

Music 4 Japan used ThingLink to collect money for earthquake victims.

Give archive images another dimension

Artek Open Archives tells stories about their archives using ThingLink.

Anything you like!

Make collage pictures with links, add navigation to your web site, create maps with audio guides...

Get more inspiration on our gallery blog at gallery.thinglink.com!

ThingLink for your business

Who is ThingLink built for?

Any publisher of digital images can use ThingLink to make the objects in their images clickable and drive traffic anywhere you want. Add ThingLinks to images for social connection, education, information sharing and enjoyment.

I'm a publisher, what's in it for me?

Engage your audience. Clickable images with in-image links are more engaging than plain images. Monetize your images by transforming them into ads. ThingLink in-image ads linked to suppliers and retailers deliver higher value impressions compared with traditional banner ads. Our average in-image campaign click-through rate (CTR) ranges from 1.5% to 5%.

Music

ThingLink has launched an innovative sound player that enables anyone to add music and sound directly to their images. For the first time, it is possible to link a SoundCloud waveform player to any photo or picture, thereby connecting the subject to music, sounds and effects, voice annotations and narrations.

Advertising and e-Commerce

As in-image ads become the new 'point-of-sale' and replace ineffective banners ads, ThingLink is working with online publishers to develop new revenue streams around existing photo inventory and improve reader retention. ThingLinked images linked to suppliers and retailers deliver higher value impressions compared with traditional banner ads. Our average in-image campaign click-through rate (CTR) ranges from 1.5% to 20%.

Blogs and Websites

Installing ThingLink on any blog or website improves user engagement and transforms flat images into a rich surface for object-based channels to art, music, books, videos, products, services, historical information, and advertisements. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

How It Works

ThingLink is easily embedded into online magazines, brand websites, and in small business and personal blogs. Installation takes a few minutes. Add 3 lines of code to your blog or website and you're ready.

ThingLink Freemium account enables these features:

1) On-site tag editor

ThingLink tag editor lets you define interactive hotspots inside an image — from a THING (an object, a person, or a place) to a LINK (a shop, a blog post, or anywhere you like). The editor works on your own site when you are logged in ThingLink. If the link is a SoundCloud url, a player appears in the tag.

2) Easy sharing

ThingLink makes images shareable: anyone can share a favorite image via Twitter, Facebook and email, and embed them on websites and blogs with tags. This brings traffic back to the source site.

3) Image statistics

ThingLink provides real-time statistics on user interaction with images. We measure image and tag-specific views, hovers, and clicks. This helps you evaluate the successfulness of your campaign.

Contact

Our business team will be more than willing to answer all your questions regarding ThingLink. For more information, please contact Neil Vineberg, tel. +1 415 347 5427, or Jonas Forth, tel. +358 50 923 2486.

Company and team

Ulla Engeström, a Finnish technology entrepreneur and an expert in social objects and long tail markets, founded Thinglink LLC in the U.S in 2008 and launched a private beta a year later. In April 2010, she founded Thinglink Oy in Finland, and published the service in July 2010. In September ThingLink raised a seed-financing round from European investors Inventure and Lifeline Ventures.

By 2014, 53% of total retail sales (online and offline), will be affected by the Web, as consumers increasingly use the Internet to research products before purchasing.
(Forrester Research)

ThingLink - A Pioneer in Object Navigation

2005: Ulla met with Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia at Reboot Conference in Copenhagen, and discussed a new standard for identifying both virtual and physical objects and linking them to information on the Internet.

2006: Social Objects Oy, a Helsinki-based incubator owned by Ulla and Jyri Engeström, started developing ThingLink as a global unique identifier for the long tail market. Unique identifiers are seen as a technological pre-requisite for enabling object navigation.

2007: With a supporting grant from the Finnish Technology Agency (TEKES), Social Objects Oy continued to develop and test various user scenarios for object navigation on the web and via mobile phones, including NFC.

2008: ThingLink LLC was founded in Palo Alto, California.

2009: ThingLink launched a Private Beta version of the service that enables consumers, designers, and brands to identify and converse around products.

2010: ThingLink launched a public version of the service that enables everyone to navigate through objects in images, and to share those images with their social network. ThingLink Oy raises a seed-financing round.

The team

Tagged images drive traffic. Pictures invite clicks. Users are 5-15 times more likely to click on tagged images than other web ads.

Ulla Engeström, Founder & CEO: Co-founder and CEO, Social Objects Oy. Co-founder, Nopsa Travels. Director, Institute for Design Research.
Janne Jalkanen, CTO: Head of Early Technology Validation, Nokia (“Nokia’s godfather of NFC - TechCrunch”). Creator of JSPWiki, the leading Java-based open source wiki platform. @ecyrd
Neil Vineberg, CMO / Thinglink USA: Founder, Vineberg Communications. PR Advisor to Jaiku, mp3.com, Webshots, eMusic, IBM, Sprint, Sony, United Airlines, Procter & Gamble, and Applifier.
Petteri Koponen, Business Development: Partner, Lifeline Ventures. Effort lead (mobile social, later New Business Development / EMEA), Google. Jaiku co-founder & CEO (acquired by Google). Founder & CEO, First Hop (acquired by Airwide Solutions).
Janne Aukia, Lead UI Engineer: Co-founder, Frontend Finland. Senior software developer, Futurice. Research engineer, Xtract.
Jonas Forth, Community Manager: Editor, YLE. Production Manager, Kinoproduction. Content Developer, MediaCity, specialized in storytelling in cross- and trans-media environments.
Kalle Aaltonen, Senior Software Engineer: Systems Analyst, Accenture. Senior Software Engineer, Whitevector. Specialized in scalable systems.

Funding

ThingLink has received early-stage funding from European investors Inventure and Lifeline Ventures.

Press

Please download the archived press package containing official images and company info.

Get started!

Sign up and create your own personal tagging tool. We'll be glad to help you to integrate ThingLink with your web site or blog. It's as easy as adding a few lines of Javascript.

Start using ThingLink (it's free) »