A brief summary of the photo sharing sites I use and some strengths and weaknesses.

1. Photo Sharing

2. The Problems
 Digital cameras and smart phones produce
hundreds (thousands) of photos – small
tsunamis of images.
 Photos are very demanding. They need:
 Naming/tagging/descriptions
 Editing (fixing/cropping/culling)
 Storing (high res photos can be space hogs)
 Sharing with others
 Select peeps (relatives/close friends)
 Larger groups (includeing acquaintances)
 Everyone (public)

3. What you want
 Photo sharing options that are:
 Efficient (fast)
 Reliable (no loss of photos)
 Intuitive to use esp. at the beginning
 Easy for others to access and use and return
to
 Attractive and/or clean or not unattractive
 Affordable and/or free

4. picasa.google.c
om/
flickr.com
smugmug.co
m
imageevent.c
om
mejuba.com
facebook.co
m

5. flickr
 Free for 1 GB (200 photos)
 Share videos (1 min. maximum)
 $25 per year for unlimited
 26 million users (2010)
 Huge photo sharing community – mostly amateur
photographers who chat amongst themselves.
 Everyone loves it (except for me)
 Yahoo offshoot
 Uploading isn’t difficult
 Organizing is not intuitive and is maddeningly
cumbersome
 Nice slideshow with lots of options

6. flicker … cons
 No batch downloads
 Editing pictures isn’t straightforward – links
and title captions don’t always work or stick
 No thumbnails (lot of scrolling and no view all)
 Cannot give multiple images same name
 No export from iPhoto
 No email notification if someone comments
 No control over images on your home page
 Privacy control possible but hard work
 Why isn’t a set called an album?

7. flickr … structure
 Collections
 Top tier
 Sets
 aka Albums
 Galleries
 Galleries are a way to curate up to 18
public photos or videos of your fellow
members into one place. It’s an
opportunity to celebrate the creativity of
fellow members in a unique way i.e.
around a theme, an idea or just
because.

8. picasa
 Free for 1 GB of photos and videos
 $25 per year 25 GB, $50 for 100 GB
 More of a social community
 500,000 users (2010)
 Everyone loves it (except for me)
 Google offshoot
 Uploading isn’t difficult
 Organizing is easier than Flickr … a cleaner
interface
 You can edit photos
 Basic slideshow

9. picasa … cons
 Facebook wannabe (Circles)
 Could end up expensive
 Quality of photos?

10. smugmug
 Photographers site
 Everything is absolutely beautiful
 Support Heros are beyond terrific
 And you pay for it
 $32 year for basic w/unlimited photos
 $48 year for your own domain + unlimited hd
videos
 $125 for professional photographers

11. smugmug
 Limited community – your photos may not be
discovered (if you care)

12. imageevent
 $25 year for 1500 images (one time additional
fees for 1500 extra images)
 Public galleries separate – you have to go to
them to see them (as opposed to Flickr/Picasia)
 Albums and sub-albums
 Organizing is super straightforward and logical
 Unlimited video
 Slideshow is OK
 Sharing is super easy
 Editing captions in thumbnails is quick and easy

13. imageevent
 Not at all beautiful
 Uploading can be sluggish
 Slideshow not as beautiful
 Back to thumbnails in a stupid place

14. mejuba
 Free for unlimited photos and videos
 Transfer photos from other sites (Picasa/Flickr)
 Straightforward
 Pretty easy to use including organizing
 Album structure more like Image Event (pc-ish)

15. mejuba
 Ugly
 No community
 Difficult to share
 Slow loading
 No support
 Transferring photos not so easy
 You get what you pay for …

16. facebook
 This is where it’s at IMO
 The structure forces you to choose select photos
 And to add some fun, witty, interesting comments
 Your friends get involved

17. facebook
 You wouldn’t upload 2000 holiday pics from your
cruise to Alaska
 Privacy – it barely exists (even if you think it does
or try to make it so)
 Finding photos can be a challenge

18. SocialSafe
 http://www.socialsafe.net/
 Cheap!
 $3.50 year for 1 profile
 $7.00 for up to 4 profiles
 This makes facebook work for me …
 I can search for a ‘story’
 Their support is incredibly responsive and
nice (George and Pascal)

19. SlideShare
 SlideShare is awash in slideshows
showing you how to use the various photo
sharing sites http://www.slideshare.net/