Free, professional photos for your blog

It's not just rude to swipe a photo from someone else's website and use it on your own, it's also, in many cases, illegal. But what if I told you that you could have all the photos you wanted, snapped by professional photographers and even including celebrities and big events like the red carpet at the Academy Awards? And those photos would be free.

Not a bad deal, huh? That's the idea behind PicApp.com, a brand new site that's offering all the pics you can eat from its monster database of photographs. These are pro-grade shots, not just amateur stuff, and they include every possible subject you could want.

The catch is a simple one, and you probably see it coming already: You can't just embed the pictures as regular JPEGs. Instead, they are embedded as Flash objects (much like you'd embed a YouTube video). When the pics show up on your website, they include a quick "pre-roll" style ad before they display at full size. The pics also include a little PicApp guy peeking out over the top of the photo and a small button that lets you replay the ad if you want to see it again. (So far, the ads are just text links.) Take a look at the system in action here or check the screenshot above. It's not for everyone, but it works well if you absolutely need art to illustrate your point. (And who doesn't?)

PicApp is now in early beta, and it works well once you get the photos on your site. The PicApp interface is another story; it's as buggy as it gets right now. A search will give you pages of results one time, then say no photos are available a few minutes later. The login system also needs work. Basically, have a little patience when you're getting started with PicApp, and remember it's still in beta.