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This domain name concept capitalizes on the explosion of digital photography and the corresponding growth in online services to help digital photography enthusiasts share their photos on the web. After they have purchased and learned to use their digital camera, consumers will look for cost-effective ways to create digital albums (or web pages). There are many free web application services available to help accommodate this. A new online business model emerges: through the provision of a web-based application and server storage space to help users build their own online photo web pages, web entrepreneurs can create a captive market for generating advertising revenue.
Are you interested in free online sharing of your digital photos? There are many photo uploading web sites which will allow you to create photo albums to share with friends and relatives (or anyone else on the Internet). This page provides a comparison of the features of the top photo sharing web sites:
Easy = Ease of use rating (1 = very easy, 10 = difficult)
Ads = Displays ads on your pages?
S.N. = Social Networking Included? (blogs, groups, friend networks)
U.L. = Upload Storage Limit?
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| Zooomr | Easy = 5 | U.L. = No Limit | Ads = Yes | S.N. = Yes |
| I was able to upload photos, but when I tried to create a photo album (called a "set" in Zooomr) nothing happened. The browser showed that a javascript error had occurred. I wasn't sure how I could send my friends a link to my photos, or what web address I could use to locate them in a browser. I couldn't find a help link to explain how to do this. |
| Flickr | Easy=3 | U.L. = 100MB/month | Ads = No | S.N. = Yes |
There are about 4 or 5 pages of settings to got through before you finally have a photo album (or "set") and a browser link to email your friends. My final photo web page is a little cluttered with links to other Flickr functions not related to my album, but there are no advertisements.
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| Snapfish | Easy=4 | ?? | Ads = No | S.N. = No |
Snapfish is operated by HP and provides a total solution to get digital photos off of your digital camera and into an Internet storage location. (They provide special "Quickuploader" software to transfer your photos in batches, or you can upload them one by one using the web interface.) The site's emphasis is on all of the secondary services that HP can provide, like getting hardcopy prints made of your photos. You can share your photos online for free, but people who want to look at them will have to create an account at Snapfish by supplying their email address.
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| Webshots | Easy=5 | U.L. = 1000 photos + 100 extra per month | Ads = Yes | S.N. = Yes |
The Webshots sign-up seems to want a lot of personal information to create an account. As with Snapfish, there is a definite commercial tie-in with it's photo printing services. Blogs and special interest groups (friend networks) make Webshots more social - networking focussed than some of the other free photo uploading services.
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