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.

My first thought was “this looks like XOBNI for Gmail” and, according to the comments and feedback I have read on this product, I am not alone. XOBNI is another fantastic tool, but unfortunately is only available for Outlook users, and a product that I have missed terribly since switching from Outlook to Gmail.  Both of these products make it very easy to see what social networking services your friends, family and even customers are using.

Once installed, the social networking information on the person/company that emailed you appears out to the right of an open email.  Icons (with links) are provided for services like Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, etc.  Simply click on any of these to open the profile page of that individual in a new tab.  Below the links you will find a comment area that you can use for keeping track of customers, but I am sure individuals will find some other creative and unique ideas for this space.

Installation

First of all, Rapportive is an add-on, so there isn’t the same commitment level that you might have with a full-blown program installation.  If you don’t like it, it takes just a few button clicks to disable it.  I had it up and running in less than 5 minutes, thanks to the well-thought out installation page from the Rapportive web site that includes step-by-step install instructions.

Link: http://rapportive.com/install

** One user did comment that any users of the Ad-Block Plus add-on (Firefox) might have to disable it to perform the installation of Rapportive.

After installing, you’ll just have to restart and then open an individual message (any one will do) to access the login button.  Grant permission to Rapportive to access your Gmail account and you are on your way.

Login Screen for First Time Use

Concerns

Initial concerns from most seem to be the fear that Rapportive will have access to your login credentials and/or email content.  Their FAQ page addresses this concern head-on:

“We never see your password. We use Gmail’s OpenID login system, which means only Google receives your password. All we get from Google is a token that proves you’re really you, and a few details (like your name and preferred language)… The contents of your email never leaves your browser, and we never store your emails anywhere. We’re finding peoples’ email addresses in the browser, and sending those back to our server to look them up.”

Verdict

I have only used Rapportive for a few minutes, but I am already a big fan.  There are definitely some areas for improvement, but the makers of Rapportive have provided numerous areas within the sidebar and their website for you to provide feedback.  I will be using their service and providing my ideas and concerns as time goes on and I encourage you to do the same.

Google Social Search is a new way to search the web.  You simply Google as you always did and a new section will appear in the results, aptly titled “Results from your social circle.”  These results will include more relevant, personal web content from your friends and online contacts.  These links, images, blogs, etc. are taken from the social networking sites that your friends are part of, like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc.  We could explain it further, but this video (by the amazing commoncraft) does it so well.

Google Social Search solves some of the problems with the original “social search” (asking friends, family and co-workers):

1. We can’t ask everyone we know – we want the answer pretty quickly, right?
2. We will forget to ask someone – I can ask 20 people a question and the 21st person would have had the answer I needed.
3. We forget what others have done – maybe a past job, trip or experience makes John Doe the perfect person to answer our question, but we forgot he even did that or went there.

Are You Prepared

If you want to get the most out of Social Search right away (or “in a few weeks”, as stated in the video), get started by creating a Google profile, where you can add links to your public online social services.  The video explains how to do this, but flys by it pretty quickly.  Here are the steps I took to get my profile set up.

• Visit the site http://www.google.com/profiles
• Create or view your profile (you’ll need a Google user id and password to do this)
• Choose Edit Profile (center of the screen next to “about me”)
• Fill in your information, include a photo (add or leave out what you want)
• ADD LINKS* – this is what makes the search possible!  Without the links, Google Social Search is not a valuable tool.
• Save your changes

*Adding links can be a bit tricky.  When prompted for the URL of a site/service you will need to provide a URL that is specific to your profile.  Every social networking site is a bit different, so if you aren’t sure which URL to use, simply Google “my Facebook URL” or “my Twitter URL” or whatever service it is that you are using.  The instructions should only be a few clicks away.

Big Brother

I am sure that several of you have already decided to avoid this service because you are afraid the world will have access to your personal information.  I can respect your choice to protect your information, but know that the answers provided to others on Google Social Search are only available if you and that person have already “linked” to each other in Google contacts or one of the previously mentioned services.  Google does not want to violate your privacy or put you in harm’s way.  They simple want to bring everyone together in one centralized place.  The functionality and value in the Google Social Search is only as good as the content, which you must provide.