How the Big Photo-Sharing Sites Stack Up
Picking a New Service Once Yahoo Photos Is Out of the Picture
Yahoo’s recent announcement that it would be closing its Yahoo Photos division on Sept. 20 forced its users to decide what to do with their photos. The site’s photo-storage and sharing service, which has been around for about seven years, is bowing to its hipper counterpart, chart for more details.
- Kodak Gallery
(www.kodakgallery.com)
This is a solid site for sharing albums with friends in a few straightforward steps. Though its options for editing photos tend to feel a bit clumsy, they’re probably the best out of the five sites. Most sites expect users to edit images before sharing them. Earlier this year, Kodak introduced a new version of its EasyShare desktop software program with richer editing features, such as images that expand to almost the entire screen.
In addition to its $25 a year Gallery Premier account, you can opt to pay twice as much for the account and a discount on Kodak prints — 10 cents each rather than 15 cents. Paid accounts let you download high-resolution versions of each photo and give you a unique Web address for sharing photos that can be password protected. But the other four sites offer personal Web sites as free features, rather than just with paid accounts.
- Shutterfly
(www.shutterfly.com)
Shutterfly seemed to be the simplest site, though it isn’t the most attractive or user friendly. All of its features are free. Shutterfly does away with two conditions that Kodak Gallery and Snapfish have: It doesn’t require any purchases in order to keep your account from being deleted nor does it ever require your friends to sign in before viewing a shared album.
But Shutterfly’s simplicity can also be a hindrance. It doesn’t let you upload videos to share, nor can you download high-resolution versions of each photo or send photos to the site via email or mobile device; the other sites do these things either for free or with a paid account.
- Snapfish
(www.snapfish.com)
Snapfish is Hewlett-Packard Co.’s photo-sharing site, and it stands out because it has the most restrictions. Along with its requirement that you purchase something at least once a year to keep your account, guests who view your albums must always sign in; you can’t change this setting like on the other sites. To skirt this issue, Snapfish emphasizes its Group Rooms, or personalized sharing Web sites that users view with a specific URL and a password (if you choose to have one).
Snapfish and Shutterfly both have Web sites on which photos appear too small for my taste, though Snapfish does offer generously sized images in photo slideshows — a plus. I’d prefer the site itself showed larger images in other instances. High-resolution version of photos can be downloaded for a fee of 25 cents for one and five cents for more than one.
- Flickr
(www.flickr.com) - Photobucket.com
(www.photobucket.com)
Of the two community sharing sites, I preferred Flickr over Photobucket. The site felt cleaner, with fewer distractions and one less advertisement than Photobucket. For people who aren’t used to these more progressive sites, Photobucket and Flickr may seem extreme. They offer things like tagging and use terms that can be confusing. Flickr uses “sets” in place of “albums,” and photos are organized within “batches.” Photobucket organizes albums, but then lets you create sub albums within an album.
Neither site requires annual purchases, and both allow free high-resolution downloads of photos. Instead of one-time sharing, the sites use photostreams, or constantly updated photo blogs that friends can check.
Flickr and Photobucket make it easy to post photos to blogs in one step, including Blogger and Typepad. Photobucket also lets you post to MySpace and Facebook in one step.
In Flickr, you can meet people who have interests similar to yours by searching through Groups. I joined a group that shared photos of tennis courts around the world. Digital photos suddenly offered ways to socialize online without chatting or leaving overused messages for strangers.
Among other things, Photobucket lets you create a Remix — a presentation made of your photos and/or videos after they’re dragged into a storyline and mixed in with music, transitions and graphics. The result was entertaining and professional, though it took just seconds to make.
Ideally, I’d like to combine a favorite feature from each of these sites to make one great photo-sharing Web site. I found something wrong with each one, but Kodak Gallery and its EasyShare software program offer a good combination of editing and sharing. Flickr was my preferred community photo site, though it and Photobucket both offer fresh ways to share digital photos.
Edited by Walter S. Mossberg
- Email: MossbergSolution@wsj.com
Comments
One limitation of Flickr that isn’t mentioned is that only the 200 most recent photos will be displayed unless you upgrade to a paid account. Not a problem for many people, but not great for others.
Posted by Alan Sanders at July 31st, 2007 at 10:22 pmWhat about Zooomr (www.zooomr.com)?
Posted by Farrell Kramer at August 1st, 2007 at 7:03 amyou should also review the picasaweb.google.com
you can upload all your pictures on the web (http:\\picasaweb.google.com\)
Posted by shiva challa at August 1st, 2007 at 9:38 amvery easily with the picasa software provided.
Yahoo’s suggested sites is self-serving, because they omitted the best, and most full featured site which is Sony’s Imagestation. It has unlimited capacity and max hi-res photos
Posted by George Vaughan at August 2nd, 2007 at 8:55 amwith complete editing at the lowest annual fee.I have been using it for 7 years, since it was formerly Zing.com. I have compared it to each and every other upstart, and none of them compare. You should review it to give your readers an opinion of a
really superior site. Check it out here: http://www.imagestation.com/members/VeniceRC
PhotoDrop.com, a relatively new service on the block is really going after creating the simplest online photo album and creation method around.
You can upload pictures into an album on the web site, or you can download a small application that allows you to drag’n'drop the pictures. You enter an email address and it sends notifications to the people you want to share with.
Features are being added weekly. Check it out: http://www.photodrop.com.
Posted by Angelo Coppola at August 2nd, 2007 at 12:19 pmKatie - good article. How come no mention of the granddaddy of photos sites - WebShots?
Jon B - Plano TX
Posted by Jon Battle at August 2nd, 2007 at 2:59 pmKatie & Walt — The comparison chart is a great resource, but please, please republish this article and include other services: SmugMug (the one I use), PhotoDrop, ImageStation, Zoomr, Picasa. Really spend some time researching SmugMug to appreciate what the others don’t offer.
Posted by David Price at August 3rd, 2007 at 5:09 amAnd don’t forget ipernity!
A serious alternative for social and multimedia sharing.
http://www.ipernity.com
Posted by christian conti at August 6th, 2007 at 5:34 amI am really surprised that you didn’t include smugmug.com It is by far one of the best photosharing sites out there. Completely mac pc and linux friendly, and a AM to PRO photographers dream site. Full resolution photos, unlimited sizes, unlimited uploads, no ads, total control of the use of the images on it, and really good photo utilities, it’s toall skinable (depending on the price you pay), the customer support is dead on and it a real human on the other end. Anyway, Smugmug should really be included in this list, it’s a major player and shouldn’t be discounted.
Posted by Christopher Hollomon at August 6th, 2007 at 10:16 amPixamo should be here too. It has an importer that brings your photos and videos over from other sites, and it lets you keep your contacts in sync with sites like Plaxo and LinkedIn. The service is free, it stores all your original high resolution images, and you can order prints. It’s easy to upload through e-mail or mobile devices, and the access/privacy controls beat what I’ve seen on other sites. Not only can you control who sees specific photos and videos, but you can also create your own sharing groups, which in my book is a lot safer than sending an invitation link, handing out passwords, or adding the same people to your one and only “friends” group, where everyone gets the same access rights all the time.
Posted by Dave Krysiak at August 6th, 2007 at 12:46 pmIt would be nice if http://www.myotherdrive.com was reviewed here as well. This site gives 5GB of storage space, with no limits on file sizes, or file types, and supports hyperlinking (URL) to your files (great for eBay, MySpace, FaceBook). It even supports bulk uploads so you can upload all your directories and files in one operation. Great site to use for online backup. I hope it can be considered in a future article.
Posted by John DeRegnaucourt at November 28th, 2007 at 4:44 pmThis is a nice list, but Hoorray definitely needs to be included. It has many easy photo sharing features. You can add voice to any of your photos, which is really great. Also, it has a story wizard that will help you add text to your photos if you want. It has free storage in addition to some affordable membership options (one is less than a dollar a month). It’s been the easiest photo sharing site I’ve found so far. You can also order prints, photo albums, story books, calendars, cards. They’re easy to create and a lot of fun to share.
Posted by Matt Smolsky at January 8th, 2008 at 2:01 pm