Photo sharing
Encyclopedia
Photo sharing is the publishing or transfer of a user's digital photos
online, thus enabling the user to share them with others (publicly or privately). This function is provided through both websites and applications that facilitate the upload and display of images. The term can also be loosely applied to the use of online photo galleries that are set up and managed by individual users, including photoblog
s. Sharing means that other users can view but not necessarily download the photos, users being able to select different copyright options.
The first photo sharing sites originated during the mid to late 1990s primarily from services providing online ordering of prints (photo finishing), but many more came into being during the early 2000s with the goal of providing permanent and centralized access to a user's photos, and in some cases video clips too. Webshots
, SmugMug
, Yahoo! Photos and Flickr
were among the first. This has resulted in different approaches to revenue generation and functionality among providers.
While photoblogs tend only to display a chronological view of user-selected medium-sized photos, most photo sharing sites provide multiple views (such as thumbnail
s and slideshow
s), the ability to classify photos into albums, as well as add annotations (such as captions or tags
) and comments. Some photo sharing sites, even small ones with only a few million photos, provide complete online organization tools equivalent to desktop photo management
applications.
Desktop photo management applications may include their own photo-sharing features or integration with sites for uploading images to them. There are also desktop applications whose sole function is sharing photos, generally using peer-to-peer
networking. Basic photo sharing functionality can be found in applications that allow you to email photos, for example by dragging and dropping them into pre-designed templates
.
Photo sharing is not confined to the web and personal computers, but is also possible from portable devices such as camera phone
s, using applications that can automatically transfer photos as you take them, to photo sharing sites and photoblogs, either directly or via MMS
. Some cameras now come equipped with wireless networking
and similar sharing functionality themselves.
Of the sites that offer free photo sharing, most can be broken up into advertising-supported media plays and online photo finishing sites, where photo sharing is a vehicle to sell prints or other merchandise.
Paid sites typically offer subscription-based services directly to consumers and dispense with advertisements and sometimes the sale of other goods.
These designations are not hard and fast and some subscription sites have a limited free version. Consumers can share their photos directly from their home computers over high speed connections through peer-to-peer
photo sharing using applications. Peer-to-peer photo sharing often carries a small one-time cost for the software. Some sites allow you to post your pictures online and they will then project the image onto famous buildings during special events, while other sites let you insert photos into digital postcards, slide shows and photo albums and send them to others.
Some free sites are owned by camera manufacturers, and only accept photos made with their hardware.
of photos, more storage space, the ability for non-account holders to download full-size, original versions of photos, and tools for backing up photos. Some offer user photographs for sale, splitting the proceeds with the photographer, while others may use a disclaimer to reserve the right to use or sell the photos without giving the photographer royalties or notice.
From the turn of the 21st century, some sites began integrating video sharing
as well.
s (ISPs) often prohibit the serving of content both by contract and through the implementation of network filtering, and there are few quality guarantees for recipients. However, there are typically no direct consumer costs beyond the purchase of the initial software, provided the consumer already has a computer with the photos at home on a high speed connection. Applications like Tonido
photos provide peer-to-peer photo sharing.
which acts as an intermediate point, it is possible to share photos peer-to-peer with the reliability and security of a central server. Photos are securely stored behind a firewall
on the Windows Home Server and can be accessed only by those with appropriate permissions.
. Technically speaking, this may still be described as peer-to-peer (with the second peer being a web browser) but it is characteristically different as it assumes no need to download peer software for the viewer. Photos are accessed by regular URLs
that standard web browsers understand natively without any further software required. Consequently, photos shared in this way are accessible not only to users who have downloaded the correct peer software (compatible with the software in use by the sharer).
Peer-to-browser sharing has (similar to peer-to-peer) reduced hosting costs, no loss of control to a central service, and no waiting for files to upload to the central service. Furthermore, universal web browser access to shared files makes them more widely accessible and available for use in different ways, such as embedding in, or linking to, from within web pages. As with peer-to-peer, the downsides are lack of off-site backup, possible inhibition by some ISPs, and limitations in speed of serving.
expects that Facebook
will have 100 billion photos by Summer 2011. Social Network photo sharing allows users to share photos with only those they specify as being allowed to see those albums, whether it is all users, or only those whom they are connected with.
recently created an advertising campaign to warn users of the dangers of posting personal photos to public websites.
where images can be grouped within a directory-like structure in so-called "galleries". Some sites also allow users to classify images using tags to build a folksonomy
. Depending on the restrictions on the set of users allowed to tag a single document and the set of tags available to describe the document, one speaks about narrow and broad folksonomies. A folksonomy is broad when there is no restriction on the set of taggers and available tags. When there are limitations, the folksonomy is called narrow. Another mechanism is coupling taxonomy and folksonomy, where tags associated to galleries and artists are cascaded to the galleries and artist's pictures. Broad taxonomies have interesting properties like the power law
.
Some sites including Panoramio
and Wikimedia Commons
show their geocoded photographs on a map, helping the user find pictures of the same or nearby objects from different directions.
Dropshots
Digital photography
Digital photography is a form of photography that uses an array of light sensitive sensors to capture the image focused by the lens, as opposed to an exposure on light sensitive film...
online, thus enabling the user to share them with others (publicly or privately). This function is provided through both websites and applications that facilitate the upload and display of images. The term can also be loosely applied to the use of online photo galleries that are set up and managed by individual users, including photoblog
Photoblog
A photoblog is a form of photo sharing and publishing in the format of a blog. It differs from a blog through the predominant use of and focus on photographs rather than text...
s. Sharing means that other users can view but not necessarily download the photos, users being able to select different copyright options.
The first photo sharing sites originated during the mid to late 1990s primarily from services providing online ordering of prints (photo finishing), but many more came into being during the early 2000s with the goal of providing permanent and centralized access to a user's photos, and in some cases video clips too. Webshots
Webshots
-History:Webshots was created in 1995 by Auralis, Inc. in San Diego, California. It was initially a sports oriented screen saver sold at retail for desktop computers. Founders Andrew Laakmann, Danna Laakmann, Nick Wilder, and Narendra Rocherolle migrated the desktop software to the Web and became...
, SmugMug
Smugmug
SmugMug is a paid digital photo sharing website.- History :Chris MacAskill and Don MacAskill started the original company to build a new video game-oriented web service in February 2002. By August 2002, though, their focus shifted...
, Yahoo! Photos and Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
were among the first. This has resulted in different approaches to revenue generation and functionality among providers.
While photoblogs tend only to display a chronological view of user-selected medium-sized photos, most photo sharing sites provide multiple views (such as thumbnail
Thumbnail
Thumbnails are reduced-size versions of pictures, used to help in recognizing and organizing them, serving the same role for images as a normal text index does for words...
s and slideshow
Slideshow
A slide show is a display of a series of chosen information or pictures, done for artistic or instructional purposes. Slide shows are conducted by a presenter using an apparatus, such as a carousel slide projector, an overhead projector or in more recent years, a computer running presentation...
s), the ability to classify photos into albums, as well as add annotations (such as captions or tags
Tag (metadata)
In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...
) and comments. Some photo sharing sites, even small ones with only a few million photos, provide complete online organization tools equivalent to desktop photo management
Digital asset management
Digital asset management consists of management tasks and decisions surrounding the ingestion, annotation, cataloguing, storage, retrieval and distribution of digital assets...
applications.
Desktop photo management applications may include their own photo-sharing features or integration with sites for uploading images to them. There are also desktop applications whose sole function is sharing photos, generally using peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
networking. Basic photo sharing functionality can be found in applications that allow you to email photos, for example by dragging and dropping them into pre-designed templates
Template (file format)
The term document template when used in the context of file format refers to a common feature of many software applications that define a unique non-executable file format intended specifically for that particular application....
.
Photo sharing is not confined to the web and personal computers, but is also possible from portable devices such as camera phone
Camera phone
A camera phone is a mobile phone which is able to capture still photographs . Since early in the 21st century the majority of mobile phones in use are camera phones....
s, using applications that can automatically transfer photos as you take them, to photo sharing sites and photoblogs, either directly or via MMS
Multimedia Messaging Service
Multimedia Messaging Service, or MMS, is a standard way to send messages that include multimedia content to and from mobile phones. It extends the core SMS capability that allowed exchange of text messages only up to 160 characters in length.The most popular use is to send photographs from...
. Some cameras now come equipped with wireless networking
Wireless LAN
A wireless local area network links two or more devices using some wireless distribution method , and usually providing a connection through an access point to the wider internet. This gives users the mobility to move around within a local coverage area and still be connected to the network...
and similar sharing functionality themselves.
Revenue models
Photo sharing sites can be broadly broken up into two groups: sites that offer photo sharing for free and sites that charge consumers directly to host and share photos.Of the sites that offer free photo sharing, most can be broken up into advertising-supported media plays and online photo finishing sites, where photo sharing is a vehicle to sell prints or other merchandise.
Paid sites typically offer subscription-based services directly to consumers and dispense with advertisements and sometimes the sale of other goods.
These designations are not hard and fast and some subscription sites have a limited free version. Consumers can share their photos directly from their home computers over high speed connections through peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
photo sharing using applications. Peer-to-peer photo sharing often carries a small one-time cost for the software. Some sites allow you to post your pictures online and they will then project the image onto famous buildings during special events, while other sites let you insert photos into digital postcards, slide shows and photo albums and send them to others.
Some free sites are owned by camera manufacturers, and only accept photos made with their hardware.
Online photo finishing
Because printing at home for consumers is potentially time consuming, costly, or low quality, a number of providers offer the ability to create high quality prints from digital photos, on photographic paper. Typically the customer uploads their digital photos to the site and then orders prints and gifts which are then delivered by mail. To facilitate the sale of prints and gifts to family and friends, these sites typically offer a limited form of photo sharing. Because the primary revenue model is to sell the consumer back their digital information in the form of prints and gifts, the online albums typically do not allow friends and family to download the full size original images, and the images may be deleted if no purchases are made. Nevertheless, because the primary revenue model of the printing sites is to sell prints and gifts, the photo sharing service is free and hence attractive to many consumers.Subscription-based photo sharing
In return for a fee, subscription-based photo sharing sites offer their services without the distraction of advertisements or promotions for prints and gifts. They may also have other enhancements over free services, such as guarantees regarding the online availabilityUptime
Uptime is a measure of the time a machine has been up without any downtime.It is often used as a measure of computer operating system reliability or stability, in that this time represents the time a computer can be left unattended without crashing, or needing to be rebooted for administrative or...
of photos, more storage space, the ability for non-account holders to download full-size, original versions of photos, and tools for backing up photos. Some offer user photographs for sale, splitting the proceeds with the photographer, while others may use a disclaimer to reserve the right to use or sell the photos without giving the photographer royalties or notice.
From the turn of the 21st century, some sites began integrating video sharing
Video sharing
Video hosting services refers to websites or software where users can distribute their video clips. Other sites such as file hosting services image hosting services and social network services might support video sharing as an enhancement to their primary mission, but in general, they are not...
as well.
Peer-to-peer photo sharing
With the introduction of high speed (broadband) connections directly to homes, it is feasible to share pictures and movies without going through a central service. The advantages of peer-to-peer sharing are reduced hosting costs and no loss of control to a central service. The downsides are that the consumer does not get the benefit of off-site backup; consumer Internet Service ProviderInternet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
s (ISPs) often prohibit the serving of content both by contract and through the implementation of network filtering, and there are few quality guarantees for recipients. However, there are typically no direct consumer costs beyond the purchase of the initial software, provided the consumer already has a computer with the photos at home on a high speed connection. Applications like Tonido
Tonido
Tonido is a home server NAS software. Once installed on a computer, Tonido software makes that computer's files available remotely through the browser from the WAN. No port forwarding is required, as data is transmitted through Tonido's servers. Users can switch to not using Tonido's servers by...
photos provide peer-to-peer photo sharing.
Peer-to-server photo sharing
While peer-to-peer solutions operate without a central server this can create problems since some users do not leave their computers online and connected all the time. Using an always-on server like Windows Home ServerWindows Home Server
Windows Home Server, code-named Quattro, is a home server operating system from Microsoft. Announced on 7 January 2007, at the Consumer Electronics Show by Bill Gates, Windows Home Server is intended to be a solution for homes with multiple connected PCs to offer file sharing, automated backups,...
which acts as an intermediate point, it is possible to share photos peer-to-peer with the reliability and security of a central server. Photos are securely stored behind a firewall
Firewall (computing)
A firewall is a device or set of devices designed to permit or deny network transmissions based upon a set of rules and is frequently used to protect networks from unauthorized access while permitting legitimate communications to pass....
on the Windows Home Server and can be accessed only by those with appropriate permissions.
Peer-to-browser photo sharing
A variation on the peer-to-peer model is peer-to-browser, whereby images are shared on one PC with the use of a local (on the host computer) software service (much like peer-to-peer) but made available to the viewer through a standard web browserBrowser
To browse or a browser may, among other concepts, refer to:*Browse, , a kind of orienting strategy in animals and human beings*Browsing , a type of herbivory*A user interface on a computer that allows navigation of objects...
. Technically speaking, this may still be described as peer-to-peer (with the second peer being a web browser) but it is characteristically different as it assumes no need to download peer software for the viewer. Photos are accessed by regular URLs
Uniform Resource Locator
In computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
that standard web browsers understand natively without any further software required. Consequently, photos shared in this way are accessible not only to users who have downloaded the correct peer software (compatible with the software in use by the sharer).
Peer-to-browser sharing has (similar to peer-to-peer) reduced hosting costs, no loss of control to a central service, and no waiting for files to upload to the central service. Furthermore, universal web browser access to shared files makes them more widely accessible and available for use in different ways, such as embedding in, or linking to, from within web pages. As with peer-to-peer, the downsides are lack of off-site backup, possible inhibition by some ISPs, and limitations in speed of serving.
Social Network Photo Sharing
Sharing photos through social networks has become increasingly popular as well. Facebook application and online photo aggregator PixablePixable
Pixable is a photo discovery application and company headquartered in New York City. The application aggregates and ranks photos across different online photo repositories allowing users to search, browse, edit, and access all the photos connected to them in one location.-History:Pixable was...
expects that Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
will have 100 billion photos by Summer 2011. Social Network photo sharing allows users to share photos with only those they specify as being allowed to see those albums, whether it is all users, or only those whom they are connected with.
Web photo album generators
Software can be found on the internet to generate your own photo albums, usually to share photos on the web, using a home web server. In general, this is for advanced users that want to have better control over the look and feel of their web albums and the actual servers they are going to run on.Privacy and security
Online theft and photo fraud have become major issues in the photo sharing market. The US Ad CouncilAd Council
The Advertising Council, commonly known as the Ad Council, is an American non-profit organization that distributes public service announcements on behalf of various sponsors, including non-profit organizations and agencies of the United States government....
recently created an advertising campaign to warn users of the dangers of posting personal photos to public websites.
Photos classification
Photo sharing sites usually propose several ways to classify images. Most sites propose at least a taxonomyTaxonomy
Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...
where images can be grouped within a directory-like structure in so-called "galleries". Some sites also allow users to classify images using tags to build a folksonomy
Folksonomy
A folksonomy is a system of classification derived from the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content; this practice is also known as collaborative tagging, social classification, social indexing, and social tagging...
. Depending on the restrictions on the set of users allowed to tag a single document and the set of tags available to describe the document, one speaks about narrow and broad folksonomies. A folksonomy is broad when there is no restriction on the set of taggers and available tags. When there are limitations, the folksonomy is called narrow. Another mechanism is coupling taxonomy and folksonomy, where tags associated to galleries and artists are cascaded to the galleries and artist's pictures. Broad taxonomies have interesting properties like the power law
Power law
A power law is a special kind of mathematical relationship between two quantities. When the frequency of an event varies as a power of some attribute of that event , the frequency is said to follow a power law. For instance, the number of cities having a certain population size is found to vary...
.
Some sites including Panoramio
Panoramio
Panoramio is a geolocation-oriented photo sharing website. Accepted photos uploaded to the site can be accessed as a layer in Google Earth and Google Maps, with new photos being added at the end of every month. The site's goal is to allow Google Earth users to learn more about a given area by...
and Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is an online repository of free-use images, sound and other media files. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation....
show their geocoded photographs on a map, helping the user find pictures of the same or nearby objects from different directions.
Online photo sharing websites
- 500px500px500px is a Toronto-based image hosting service founded by Oleg Gutsol and Evgeny Tchebotarev on October 31, 2009. Initially, the site saw a lackluster reception of 1000 users in 2009, but expanded to over 85,000 users as of June 2011...
- BlueMelonBlueMelonBlueMelon is a photo sharing web service, providing for digital storage of images. It is a Web 2.0 application running mostly on Ajax, and incorporating drag & drop functionality...
- FlickrFlickrFlickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
- FotkiFotkiFotki is a digital photo sharing, video sharing and media social network website and web service suite; it is one of the world's largest social networking sites...
- ImageshackImageShackImageShack is a free image hosting website. ImageShack has a subscription service but the majority of its revenue is produced from advertising related to its free image hosting. The imageshack.us Alexa ranking in September 25, 2007 was one of the top 40, but now as of September 25, 2011 it's...
- ImgurImgurimgur is an online image hosting service founded by Alan Schaaf. It offers free image hosting to millions of users a day, serving over thirty terabytes of images daily....
- InterartcenterInterartcenterInterArtCenter social network is a popular online community for international digital and fine art artists. Canadian multimedia artist George Grie initiated it in 2002 as a personal artwork portfolio. InterArtCenter Inc. is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and hosted by Yahoo! Inc....
- ipernityIpernityipernity is a Web site offering free services of multimedia sharing and social networking. It also has services for which you must pay, i.e., their service Pro....
- JalbumJalbumJalbum consists of freeware cross-platform software for managing and creating digital photo galleries, and a free / paid-for photo sharing service on which to publish them...
- Kodak Gallery
- KoodibooKKoodibooKKoodibooK is a UK-based company providing self-publishing and print-on-demand software and services. By downloading and using its KoodibooK Studio, users access photographs stored locally or online at sources such as Flickr, Picasa, Photobucket, Facebook and MySpace, then create photobooks,...
- LockerzLockerzLockerz.com is an international social commerce website based out of Seattle, WA. The site claimed 19 million members as of July 2011 in 195 different countries....
- Mobile Me
- PanoramioPanoramioPanoramio is a geolocation-oriented photo sharing website. Accepted photos uploaded to the site can be accessed as a layer in Google Earth and Google Maps, with new photos being added at the end of every month. The site's goal is to allow Google Earth users to learn more about a given area by...
- PhanfarePhanfarePhanfare is an online subscription-based photo sharing and video sharing service. It was introduced in November 2004 by Phanfare, Inc, a company founded by Andrew Erlichson and Mark Heinrich.-Overview:...
- PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket is an image hosting, video hosting, slideshow creation and photo sharing website. It was founded in 2003 by Alex Welch and Darren Crystal and received funding from Trinity Ventures. It was acquired by Fox Interactive Media in 2007....
- PicasaPicasaPicasa is an image organizer and image viewer for organizing and editing digital photos, plus an integrated photo-sharing website, originally created by Idealab in 2002 and owned by Google since 2004. "Picasa" is a blend of the name of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, the phrase mi casa for "my...
- Piczo.com
- Piixeo
- PixablePixablePixable is a photo discovery application and company headquartered in New York City. The application aggregates and ranks photos across different online photo repositories allowing users to search, browse, edit, and access all the photos connected to them in one location.-History:Pixable was...
- Shuttur
- SmugMugSmugmugSmugMug is a paid digital photo sharing website.- History :Chris MacAskill and Don MacAskill started the original company to build a new video game-oriented web service in February 2002. By August 2002, though, their focus shifted...
- SnapfishSnapfishSnapfish is a web-based photo sharing and photo printing service that is owned by Hewlett-Packard. Members can upload files for free, and are given unlimited photo storage.- History :...
- ShutterflyShutterflyShutterfly is an Internet-based social expression and personal publishing service. Shutterfly's flagship product is its photo book line. It is based in Redwood City, California.-Features:...
- WebshotsWebshots-History:Webshots was created in 1995 by Auralis, Inc. in San Diego, California. It was initially a sports oriented screen saver sold at retail for desktop computers. Founders Andrew Laakmann, Danna Laakmann, Nick Wilder, and Narendra Rocherolle migrated the desktop software to the Web and became...
- Wikimedia CommonsWikimedia CommonsWikimedia Commons is an online repository of free-use images, sound and other media files. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation....
- Windows Live Photos
- WoophyWoophyWoophy is a photo sharing website and an online community where members can put their photos on a world map. Founded in 2005 by Joris van Hoytema, Hoyte van Hoytema and Marcel Geenevasen, the site has over 39,300 members and contains around a million photos from over 43,000 cities and villages in...
- Dropshots
Dropshots
See also
- Comparison of photo gallery software
- Digital photo frameDigital photo frameA digital photo frame is a picture frame that displays digital photos without the need to print them or use a computer.- Features :...
- File sharingFile sharingFile sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
- Image hosting serviceImage hosting serviceAn image hosting service allows individuals to upload images to an Internet website. The image host will then store the image onto its server, and show the individual different types of code to allow others to view that image....
- Online file storage