Photosharing in US
SAN JOSE, Calif. - When it comes to your digital photos, sharing has never been so competitive.
Scores of start-ups, backed by millions in venture capital funding, are straining to catch the eyes of digital shutterbugs. Meanwhile, Internet giants Google and Yahoo are sprucing up their photo-sharing offerings.
On Wednesday, Google launched Web Albums, an updated version of its Picasa photo-sharing software the company acquired in 2004. For now, Web Albums is offered on an invitation-only basis while the search engine giant works out any potential kinks.
Yahoo recently announced it was giving one of its two photo-sharing sites, Yahoo Photos, a facelift, too.
Americans are snapping digital photos with their camera phones and high-end Canons and Nikons like never before - they are expected to take nearly 22 billion digital snapshots this year, compared with about 9 billion film images, according to PMA Marketing Research.
"The whole thing isn't so they can sell a $25 upgrade," said Chris Winfield, president of 10e20, a search engine marketing firm. "It's so you are there. You are going to do searches and look at their ads and click on their ads."
Google's trial Picasa Web Albums offers users a clean and quick way to scan and share photos. People can write captions and comment on the photos of their friends.
The goal was to "make it as easy as possible for the average user to use," said Adrian Graham, Google's Picasa product manager. "You don't have to navigate through complicated folder structures."
Yahoo, which says it stores about 2 billion photo images on Yahoo Photos, has incorporated some of the features from its other photo-sharing site, Flickr, which it acquired last year.
Yahoo Photos, launched in 2000, is a more private photo-sharing experience preferred by, say, parents who want limited access to images of their children, said Will Aldrich, product management of Yahoo Photos.
Yahoo Photos was the second-hottest photo site in April, attracting 7.7 million U.S. visitors, a 21 percent jump from April 2005, according to the most recent statistics from Nielsen/NetRatings. Photobucket.com was the top of the heap, with 7.8 million visitors. Flickr was fifth, drawing more than 4.8 million visitors. It was the fastest-growing photo-sharing site among the top five, soaring 346 percent year over year.
The Internet is crowded with photo-sharing services, observed Phil Leigh, president of research firm Inside Digital Media. As Google and Yahoo flex their muscles in the photo-sharing business, it will become more and more difficult for smaller sites such as FilmLoop, Shutterfly and Snapfish to grab the attention of the photo-sharing masses.
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