Color gets location photo sharing competition from Handprint's Cream

New app promises to show what's near, new and interesting' with the best photos rising to the top.

Color famously raised $41 million of funding for its location-based photo sharing application earlier this year. Now another startup, Handprint Corporation, has released a direct competitor called Cream.

Released yesterday as an iPhone app, it promises to surface what's 'near, new and interesting, in photos', with its App Store listing describing the service as "an anonymous public space for posting and voting on photos of the stuff that interests you".

The app uses hashtag-based channels to sort images, with examples being #public, #custom_bikes and #celebrity_sightings, with users able to create whatever channel name they like to keep their photos (semi) private for friends.

"With Cream, the best rises to the top so you will always be seeing the freshest, nearest and most interesting photos wherever you are whatever your interests," explains the app listing. It's free to use, and according to Handprint's site, an Android version is also coming out.

Besides Color, Cream will also be competing with UK-developed Flook, which uses a postcards metaphor for its users' images, but has a similar emphasis on helping people find interesting local content. Photo-sharing apps like Instagram and Picplz are also in the space, albeit with less of a focus on their location features.