Photo Sharing

Well....after having somehow missing all of the required information for my Web 2.0 class introductory blog, I'll attempt to redeem myself with this posting.... Just FYI, I chose blogger.com/blogspot.com for my blog because once I've signed into my Google accounts, I'm already signed into my blog, too. Plus it's easy to use and I like the look of the actual blog postings.

But....on to Photo Sharing....

For many years I have been posting my photos to Kodakgallery. A colleague at the time had suggested it, so I had a look. It was easy to use and provided the opportunity to create photo books, calendars, mugs etc. and to send prints directly to family members and friends. Since my parents didn't own a computer it was easy to send them actual photos of my adventures abroad, and for the past several years, family and close friends have received a calendar of my photo highlights of the year. Generally, it is easy to use, easy to share and provides a lovely slideshow with gentle transitions.

Recently I looked at Google's Picasa Web Albums and have been experimenting with it as my image host. I use Gmail and am working on several Googledocs with colleagues so Picasa makes sense to use in that once I sign in to my Google accounts, I have access to several services at once. YouTube provides an informative overview of the Picasa photo editing software. It looks like I need to download the latests Picasa 3 in order to modify the transitions in the slide show and I'll do that on my own computer when I get back to my own home! Picasa Web Albums allows users to link or embed album slideshows in blogs, Facebook, MySpace and email messages. So here I am attempting both...an embedded slideshow and a direct link to my Malacca (Malaysia) album on Picasa.

Slideshow:



Direct link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/keziahcat/MalaysiaMalacca?authkey=Gv1sRgCJTZuuSQnZbIGg&feat=directlink

For this posting, I explored Snapfish, Webshots, photobucket, myphotoalbum and Flickr.
myphotoalbum and Flickr impressed me the most. Their sites were clean and uncluttered by advertisements or promotions. Each site had a 'tour' of the application with Flickr's presentation being more comprehensive than myphotoalbum. Photos uploaded quickly and both had easy to find and easy to use slideshows. Organising and rearranging photos was simple in Flickr. (Still not sure how to get back into an album and reorganise in myphotoalbum!) myphotoalbum allows for embedding and linking and Flickr access is by link.

Here's the link to my Malacca album in Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38229704@N06/sets/72157621004597757/

photobucket and Webshots had the busiest, advertisement-loaded sites that actually made it difficult to focus on my photos. Each of these two sites offered linking and embedding options to other sites. Snapfish didn't get a full test as I needed to install their Quick Upload application, and I didn't have administrator access to do this on my sister's computer.

So what's my verdict?
I'd have to say that for ease of use and sharing with straightforward slideshows, I recommend Flickr, Picasa, or myphotoalbum. Since all of my pictures are already with Kodakgallery, I'm still going to use it....along with Picasa.