| FollowFriday : On any given Friday, thousands upon thousands (maybe even millions) of Twitter users enter the hashtag #FollowFriday (or #FF), followed by one or more “mentions.” The idea is for users to share the names of other “interesting people” that they follow and think you should too. These recommendations serve as positive comment cards for the digitally inclined.
JumpstartMyPC.com has decided to bring FollowFriday to our blog. Read on and, if you are so inclined, add these “interesting people” to your own list. |
FollowFriday – Round 17
Summer is here and, with any luck, you’ll be vacationing soon. Family trips to Disney World, national parks and beach resorts (assuming they aren’t located on the Gulf of Mexico) are in full swing. In order to remember these amazing trips, or simply gloat to family and friends, we break out our cameras and snap away. The only question now is what to do with those digital images once you get home.
Pictures aren’t developed anymore. They are uploaded. They aren’t placed in albums, but in folders (conveniently titled albums). You don’t invite people over to look at your photos, you send them a link.
I forget which comedian said it, but I thought this line was great (and please forgive me, as I am going strictly from memory here). “In my day, looking at someones vacation pictures was considered punishment. Now people do it for fun!”
Flickr is the first name that comes to mind when I think about storing pictures online. I can’t tell you why, considering I just opened my first Flickr account recently, but the name is synonymous with online digital photo storage.
Upload your pictures, tag them, write a description, place them in sets… The list of options goes on and on. If you want, you can use Facebook Connect to automatically add those same pictures to your Facebook profile as they are uploaded. The only real downfall to Flickr, that I can find, is that you can’t order physical prints, but then again, who does that?
Twitter: http://twitter.com/flickr
Web Site: http://www.flickr.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/flickr
Flickr is on Twitter - Now That's a Mouthful
Shutterfly as been my go-to photo sharing site for many years now. I started using it because I wanted to print out my digital pictures and, as time went on, Shutterfly added features and morphed into a real tool for storing and sharing digital images with friends and family.
One of the best features of Shutterfly, in my humble opinion, is the ability to create Share Sites. Share Sites are like individual web sites that you can edit to contain photos, calendars, weather and other individual components with simple drag-and-drop functionality. You can create a Share Site for your family vacation, an big event, a wedding, etc. or simply dump all of your pictures there.
Web Site: http://www.shutterfly.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/shutterfly
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Shutterfly
Shutterfly for Sharing and Printing
Snapfish is another of the many business arms of HP and a very similar service to Shutterfly. You can upload, store, edit, share photos and order prints from their site. The site looks a bit outdated to me (when compared to Shutterfly) but they have all of the functionality and great deals to offer a great service to their customers.
In researching the difference between all of these photo-sharing sites, I stumbled onto one interesting piece of information. Snapfish offers a service called PictureMover that allows users to connect their digital camera and upload images directly to the SnapFish web site. I have never tried this myself, but this seems like a great selling point for inexperienced PC users who are afraid of trying an online service.
Web Site: http://www.snapfish.com/snapfish/welcome
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/snapfish
Twitter: http://twitter.com/snapfishbyhp
Snapfish is not Just for Fishermen
Try out one or all three of the sites we recommended today and check back next Friday for more great #FollowFriday recommendations. Don’t forget, if you want to share this article with friends or family, all you have to do is click on the ShareThis button below.
Tags: #FF, Digital, Digital Camera, Facebook, Flickr, Follow Friday, FollowFriday, Online Sharing, Photographs, photos, pictures, Prints, Shutterfly, Snapfish, Twitter
