Slashdot Mirror
The Peculiar World of Web Photo Sharing
theodp writes "Can't get enough pictures of dogs' noses? Circular objects framed within squares? Newsweek reports on photo-sharing sites and picture blogs, where amateur shutterbugs looking to share their passions with the world happily blast their photos out to millions of people. Fotolog CEO Adam Seifer, who posts a picture of every meal he eats on Get In My Belly!,
calls the Fotolog-Flickr-HeyPix-Smugmug phenomenon 'a million reality TV shows, only without the pain and humiliation.'" Update: 03/14 07:09 GMT by T : Reader onethumb points out an important aspect of such sites: "The new breed of photo-sharing services expose their APIs for geeks everywhere to enjoy. Both Flickr and Smugmug have growing APIs with thriving communities around them. Write your own photo-sharing application, sister web service, or software toy today!" (Here's a link to Flicker's API, and one to smugmug's.)
Flickr, if I may say, is one of the best designed web apps out there. It's quick to use, clean, and very featureful. Additionally it seems to have a semi-open API because I see tons of projects (like the squared circle collage) being made out stuff on there. And, most importantly, the interface makes ample use of DHTML and flash in a way that is genuinely useful. Interface elements that on most sites require loading a new page (say changing the title of an image you uploaded) or changing your navigation style are either javascripted or implemented very elegantly in flash. It feels quite close in many ways to a traditional app.
The groups on it are also good for meeting people and sharing tips / techniques. My one complaint about these groups is that people are *too* nice. Even in the ones where it is required that users include negative feedback, none ever is.
Photos.
Another photo-sharing site not referenced in the original article is http://www.phlog.net/ (as in PHoto webLOG or PHone webLOG).
:-)
t
I've been using that site for a few months now (refer http://www.phlog.net/user/OzDJ) and I'm hooked. Family and friends often ask me "why would you bother?" and I tell them that I look at it this way....
I reckon that the extraordinary events/times/places that we experience typically occupy less than 5% of our conscious lifetime. The other 95% is very mundane day-to-day stuff, yet it shapes who we are and - ultimately - how the world itself advances (or otherwise). Photos of the day-to-day make up some of the best historical photographic exhibitions I've ever been to.
And when I'm on my deathbed in (hopefully many) years to come, I anticipate that my loved ones will care more about "the little stories" than "pix of Grandad's xxth birthday" or "pix of Grandad standing in front of the Taj Mahal in 19xx". And I'm far more prepared to trust those stories to an online blogging service than my already-alzheimers-affected grey matter.
Cheers
OzDJ - Sydney, NSW, AU
http://www.phlog.net/user/OzDJ
OzDJ@phlog.ne
Obligatory own gallery whoring: me! me! me!
And psst: since this is Slashdot, you'll want to know that there's some pretty damn good free pr0... err, I mean kinky photography out there too.
Cheers,
-j.
I tried flickr. It failed to upload my images about 15 times saying server was too busy and there was nothing I could do but wait for few hours and see if something got uploaded or not. At some point, finally, one picture got through - I tried to view it - it tried to load the picture in flash and crashed my browsers. I kept asking myself why they would do such a horrible job, and then I found zoto.com. It has the best user interface that works cross-platform, cross-browser (yes, even with Konqueror) with simple drag and drop capabilities. You can upload pictures via the browser or via a PC client - yes, even a Linux client - that will keep your pictures directory synchronized with your zoto.com account.
Overall, I like zoto.com way better than flickr, as you can tell.
And this question right here is the reason that these sites are popular. You get to view every little detail and compare it to what you do or what the "norm" is.
John Susek
Flickr is also cross platform and cross browser.
Every now and then they mess with the servers, though, so there is some downtime. When it is working, though (which is most of the time) it works beautifully.
I have personally found Smugmug a good site to use.
The fact that I can just upload my originals and it does the rest with regards to resizing them to 3 different sizes (small, medium, large) plus with a nice interface with no annoying adds. Plus no size limits and good site speeds are a bonus.
Warning:LINK WHORE! Yes yes, feel free to check out my gallery if you wish. :P I recommend the airshow!
Friends don't let Friends use Internet Explorer.
I agree, and it's not all "pictures of dogs' noses." There are some talented photographers on flickr (can't speak for the other sites). The majority of the users are point-and-click hacks like me, but a substantial portion of the pictures are very good.
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
Apparently, the main idea behind it is the slideshow - makes perfect transitions when every "squared circle" is identically cropped.
Other than that, I don't get the 'point' either.. just something to do, probably.
668.5
I'm surprised no one has mentioned it so far, but
n nl N5829
by far the best moderated photo publish/review site is PhotoSIG:
http://www.photosig.com/go/main;jsessionid=aVeK
They get thousands of photos a day categorized and scored. Amateur and professional photographers make great effort to gain a good reputation for both their photos and their comments.
Browse the categories and then browse the "best of"... the photos there are truly amazing.
Maybe, but that "cross" does not cross to anything I use.
First off, as I said before, I don't know what flickr does with Flash, or most importantly - why they bother using it - but images don't display in either Firefox or Konqueror for me - they crash the flash plugin (Konq survives the plugin crash while Firefox goes with it but that's another browser issue). I question the use of the flash plugin to display images altogether. Zoto.com displays images as they are without using any flash and uses DHTML drag and drop interface that works in IE, Firefox, Opera, KHTML (Safari and Konqueror) and any other browser that is based on one of those. It has many drag and drop features besides categorizing and picture management as well like Zwipe, blog publishing, etc. For me flash plugin crashing doesn't qualify as cross-browser.
As far as cross-platform, again not for me. From the flickr help page:
We provide a range of uploading tools to help you get your photos into Flickr, for both Windows and Mac users. (emphasis mine)
That's like saying a European auto service garage fixes both European cars - BMWs and Volkswagens - as if those are the only 2. While Zoto.com upload/sync client page besides having a Windows and Mac port has a Qt/Python port as well making it closer to truly cross-platform implementation.
So you like to see people cut up and other disturbng images. Why is it modded up as interesting ? Are so many people interested in blood and gore or is it just because its slashdot and there are boobies on that site
Aw well! who am I kidding ? *goes to check out the boobies on suzi9mm.com*
If you're planning to create your own online gallery, I highly recommend G2, the successor of the original Gallery. It's a solution for personal galleries, for you and your friends and for community / commercial sites.
It features plenty of features and more and more modules for the end user and it's a beauty on the inside for developers.
Completely agreed! (See my other post here )
A Flickr World Map developed in php and flash by me (Mark Zeman).
The Flickr Graph which maps the social relationships between people by Marcos Weskamp.
A very playful Colrpickr that shows images by hue and luminosity by Jim Bumgardner.
There's more examples at Flickr Services