Blog.Photobucket.com

Huge updates this time around!

Lots of changes within Photobucket this release.
Some updates are invisible to you and others may seem like big changes, but we're particularly proud of these new sharing and publishing features.

1. Every image is easier than ever to share with your friends and family. 

Sharing by email allows you to email individual images or videos directly to your friends from Photobucket. You'll even be able to import contacts from your Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, or AOL email accounts so that you can continue to share your life with them in the
future.

Brand new is the feature that lets you seamlessly and easily grab your images and videos from your Photobucket account and share them to your Facebook.  Try it out!

We've also enhanced the ease by which you can publish your Photobucket images and videos to blogging communities like Blogger, Livejournal, Deadjournal, Greatest Journal and Typepad.  Simply configure your Photobucket account to allow for easy blogging, and you're all set.

2. The other big updates we've made have been with the Photobucket Slideshows.  The Slideshows, formerly called widgets, have gotten some neat enhancements and we've created a load of new slideshows to make it way fun to share entire albums with friends.

Basic Slideshows have been enhanced to allow you to add titles and captions for individual images.

New slideshows let you say "Happy Birthday", "Thanks for the Add", or create games of all your Photobucket images that you can add to your webpage, profile, or blog.  The slideshows are organized as "Basic", "Social", "Seasonal", and "Fun & Games".

Here's a new favorite we call Plink which you can find in the "Fun and Games" categories of slideshows.

Try it out and make your own!
Lots of new slideshows are going to be coming over the next few months but we love hearing your feedback in the meantime so drop us a comment!

3. We're so excited about the mugs and beer steins that all our users can now make from their Photobucket images that we're putting it on sale. For a limited time only mugs are 25% off!
Be sure to use the discount code at checkout.  Don't forget that all Pro account users automatically get 10% off all of their custom Photobucket products at checkout too! Even on the mugs!

Thanks again and Happy Halloween!
Team Photobucket

Reuters - Facebook touts new Web surfing scrapbooks

Facebook touts new Web surfing scrapbooks
Eric Auchard, Reuters

Want to show your friends what you're reading or watching on the Web? Facebook says you can now do it "in two clicks."

Initial partners include news sites like The New York Times, WashingtonPost.com, Dow Jones' Wall Street Journal Online and gaming sites like GameSpot.com (owned by CNET Networks, the publisher of News.com) and IDG Entertainment.

There are also links to sports sites like Time Warner's SI.com and NBC Universal's NBCSports.com, video sites such as Brightcove and PhotoBucket, StupidVideos.com and eBaum's World, and humor sites like The Onion and CollegeHumor.com.

More at:

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-10-31T131056Z_01_N31457998_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEDIA-FACEBOOK.xml&WTmodLoc=NewsArt-C2-NextArticle-1

 

·         Also located at:

§         CNET News: http://news.com.com/Facebook+touts+new+Web+surfing+scrapbooks/2100-1025_3-6131016.html

§         PC Magazine: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2047918,00.asp

§         Reuters UK : http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-10-31T112923Z_01_N31457998_RTRIDST_0_OUKIN-UK-MEDIA-FACEBOOK.XML&WTmodLoc=NewsArt-C2-NextArticle-1

§         Reuters Canada : http://ca.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-10-31T112439Z_01_N31457998_RTRIDST_0_TECH-MEDIA-FACEBOOK-COL.XML

IMedia - User-Generated Revolution

User-Generated Revolution

Rebecca Weeks, iFilm

 Whereas Revver's strategy is to let anyone affiliate with its technology and distribute content anywhere they want, the CEO of Photobucket, Alex Welch, is betting on his destination. He added, "The average consumer has multiple online identities that he or she maintains each day. They want a central place to publish their content. Users are getting the reach for us by sharing with their friends."

More at:

http://www.imediaconnection

Facebook® Enables Users to Share Video, Photos, News, Blogs and More From Anywhere on the Web

Facebook® Enables Users to Share Video, Photos, News, Blogs and More From Anywhere on the Web
Leading Websites Tap Into the Viral Sharing Among Facebook Users

October 31, 2006

Facebook, the Internet’s leading social utility, today announced that for the first time people can access Facebook’s share functionality on multiple websites to share video, photos, news and other content with their friends on Facebook. Websites that add a link to share on Facebook will enable people to distribute content by posting it on their Facebook profiles or by sending it to specific Facebook friends without ever leaving the original website.

Barron’s Online, Boston.com, Brightcove, CollegeHumor.com, eBaumsworld.com, edgeio, GameSpot.com, Geffen, IDG Entertainment, The Internet Movie Database (IMDb), Jumpcut.com, MarketWatch.com, Miniclip.com, NBCSports.com, the New York Times, People.com, Photobucket, PureVideo Networks, SI.com, TerraPass Inc., The Onion, Time.com, TV.com, U.S. News & World Report, the Wall Street Journal Online, Washingtonpost.com, and Ziff Davis Media are among the first sites to include a link to share on Facebook.

“People share interesting content on the Web and on Facebook all the time. Now we’re making the sharing process more efficient by giving people a simple structure to do it in,” said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO, Facebook. “We’re partnering with some good companies to make it easier for people to share those websites’ content through Facebook.”

When a Facebook user is surfing the Web and clicks on the link to share on Facebook, a share box pops up with a preview of the content that will be sent. Users make some choices about how and to whom they want to share specific content and Facebook’s share functionality distributes that content to the appropriate users’ accounts.

To add the link to share on Facebook to your website, please visit www.facebook.com/share_partners.php.

Partnered to Share on Facebook

Boston.com is one of the most visited regional portals in the U.S. and is part of The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT), which includes The Boston Globe and 15 other daily newspapers, nine network-affiliated television stations, two New York City radio stations and 35 Web sites, including NYTimes.com and About.com. The link to share on Facebook will allow site visitors to easily share stories from Boston.com with their Facebook friends.

Brightcove is an open Internet TV service that empowers video producers and programmers to build broadband businesses while giving viewers more choices and control over their use of video and television. Founded by Internet pioneer Jeremy Allaire in 2004 and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Brightcove is a private company led by a management team that includes senior executives from Allaire, Macromedia, ATG, Comcast, MTV Networks, Lycos, News Corp., MediaVest, and Discovery Networks.

CollegeHumor.com was founded in 1999 by two high school friends from Baltimore who went to different colleges as a way to share all of the pictures, videos, and links their friends would IM and e-mail each other. Now it’s a lot bigger. If something’s funny on the Internet and on CollegeHumor.com, people can send it to friends by clicking on the link to share on Facebook.

CNET Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq:CNET) (www.cnetnetworks.com) is an interactive media company that builds brands for people and the things they are passionate about, such as gaming, music, entertainment, technology, business, food, and parenting. CNET Networks will launch a link to share on Facebook on two of its leading brands, GameSpot and TV.com.

Dow Jones Online (Barron’s Online, the Wall Street Journal Online and MarketWatch.com) is one of the Web’s largest publishers of original business news and financial information. The link to share on Facebook will be featured on the Dow Jones Online network of sites.

eBaum's World (www.eBaumsworld.com) is the most well-known source on the Web for finding hilarious video clips, playing fun and interactive games, watching the latest and greatest animations, and getting your daily dose of humor. The link to share on Facebook will allow eBaum’s World visitors to easily share humor-related content with their friends.

edgeio enables real-time distributed marketplaces. Content owners of any size, whether they are individuals or large online stores, can submit listings to edgeio and have their listings appear throughout the edgeio network. The link to share on Facebook will enable edgeio content to be shared.

Geffen has a diverse legacy of music and embraces a vast array of artists covering the full spectrum of music around the world. The link to share on Facebook will be on Geffen artists website pages for people to easily share links to their favorite artists and music with friends.

The IDG Entertainment Online Network is the third-largest games information network worldwide with over 9 million unique visitors per month, according to comScore. The link to share on Facebook will be included on GamePro.com.

The Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) is the world's most comprehensive source of information for movies, TV, and celebrities. IMDb also offers the subscription services IMDb Pro for Hollywood insiders, and IMDb Resume where actors and crew can create their resume, photo gallery, and even build an IMDb page for themselves. By clicking on the link to share on Facebook, IMDb visitors can find movie-related information and then share the links to friends.

Jumpcut provides a free online video editor that makes it easy for anyone to create and share movies on the Web. Facebook users can import their photos from Facebook into Jumpcut and combine them with video, titles and effects to create a movie. The link to share on Facebook will be featured on Jumpcut.com so users can easily share their Jumpcut movies on Facebook.

Miniclip.com is the Internet's largest online games Website with 30 million unique users per month - source comScore Media Metrix, March, 2006. Miniclip.com games are the most played online games and are syndicated across more websites than any other games. By clicking on the link to share on Facebook, users can send direct links to games on Miniclip.com to their friends.

NBC Universal is one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news, and information to a global audience. The company will include the link to share on Facebook on all NBCSports.com story pages.

The New York Times Company's digital operations provide high-quality news and information. The company’s core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news, information and entertainment. The link to share on Facebook will soon be posted so readers can share news stories from all NYTimes.com web pages.

The Onion is a national newspaper and website that offers award-winning news and views that readers can't get anywhere else. Using the link to share on Facebook, the Onion readers can now share the attention-grabbing headlines and renowned photojournalism that paint a picture of the world to inform the educated and the stupid alike.

Photobucket is an online personal media hub for photos, videos and graphics. Photobucket’s 27 million users can now share their Photobucket images and videos on Facebook with just one click of the link to share on Facebook.

PureVideo Networks (purevideonetworks.com) is a leading broadband publisher dedicated to compelling video and the people who produce it. StupidVideos.com and GrindTV.com collectively stream more than sixty million videos to over six million monthly unique users.

TerraPass enables individuals to balance out the global warming impact of their cars, plane travel, and home energy use by funding clean energy projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Twenty thousand TerraPass members have together eliminated over 150 million pounds of carbon dioxide. The link to share on Facebook will help this growing community share energy-saving tips from www.terrapass.com.

Time Inc. is the world’s leading magazine publisher, with approximately 150 titles that are read more than 300 million times worldwide on a monthly basis. The company’s businesses and content delivery extend to television, satellite radio, mobile devices, events, branded products and websites that receive more than 1.35 billion page views each month. People can use the link to share on Facebook to send content to friends from the Time.com, People.com, and SI.com websites.

U.S. News & World Report is devoted to reporting and analyzing politics, business, health, science, social trends, and national and international affairs. Through its annual rankings of America's Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools and America's Best Hospitals, and its News You Can Use brand, U.S. News has earned a reputation as the leading provider of service news and information that improves the quality of life of its readers. U.S. News will launch a link to share on Facebook so site visitors can easily share content with their Facebook friends.

On Washingtonpost.com, news is not a one-way street. Our award-winning reporting starts a dialogue, a fast-and-furious exchange among millions of people around the globe. The stories on washingtonpost.com inform these conversations with our world-class reporting, and facilitate true interactivity with tools like the link to share on Facebook, which gives Facebook friends the ability to share the stories that interest them faster and easier than ever before.

Ziff Davis' 1UP Network (www.1UP.com) is a leading integrated media network serving the videogame market with Web properties including community and editorial hub 1UP.com, file download site FileFront.com, video site GameVideos.com, game help site MyCheats.com, news aggregator GameTab.com, and video podcast The 1UP Show. The link to share on Facebook will enable gamers on 1UP.com to easily share news, reviews, and previews with their friends on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/press/Facebook_Share_Everywhere.pdf

Press Release - 10.26.06 - Blogging Leader Six Apart Launches Vox, the Next Step in Personal Blogging

Blogging Leader Six Apart Launches Vox, the Next Step in Personal Blogging

Free service provides unprecedented privacy control, ease of use,
and the richest media and web services integration available today

San Francisco, CA – October 26, 2006 – Six Apart, the world leader in blogging software and services, today launched Vox in the U.S., Japan, and France. Vox, a free personal blogging service for sharing experiences with friends and family, had been in private beta since June. Six Apart also announced an agreement with MRM Worldwide, a full-service direct and interactive marketing agency, to develop and implement creative advertising and integrated sponsorship programs on Vox.

"Vox is the big next step in the evolution of personal blogging,” said Six Apart co-founder and president Mena Trott, who is the lead designer of Vox. “It has powerful privacy control and is easier to use, more accessible, and fun.”

Vox’s rich privacy filters give members granular control over who views their stories, photos, videos or audio. Members can easily set any of five levels of privacy on any piece of content they share on Vox.

Rich media integration means members can insert audio, video, photos and web content into posts by connecting with popular web services people already use such as Amazon.com, YouTube, Flickr, Photobucket , iStockphoto, and iFilm. Generous storage - two gigabytes total uploads per month - assures members that they never have to worry about deleting an important memory.

"Vox has integrated an elegant and seamless way for Photobucket’s 27 million users to add images and personal video content to their blogs,” said Alex Welch, Photobucket CEO. “The integration makes it ideal for our mutual users to take their personal media with them, and publish it using Six Apart's Vox platform."

Hundreds of beautiful designs from the award-winning designers at Six Apart and Vox members offer a multitude of choices for a look that can be changed with just a few clicks to suit mood, locale, activity, or whim.

Vox also includes mobile features that are currently in beta, such as the ability to share photos with a single click from Windows Mobile, Palm, and Symbian mobile phone platforms. Vox is the only service that allows members to apply privacy settings and tags to photos and video from their phone before sharing them on Vox.

“Vox is a place to meaningfully connect and share interests and experiences with the people we care about,” according to Vox general manager Andrew Anker. “In just four months, response from early members has been extremely positive, not only from experienced bloggers who feel rejuvenated by this fun and unique space, but also from new bloggers who feel comfortable in Vox because of the privacy options and easy-to-use features.”

Groundbreaking Advertising Partnership
Six Apart and MRM Worldwide, a full-service direct and interactive marketing agency within the McCann Worldgroup network, have inked a pioneering agreement to research, develop and implement next-generation advertising and integrated sponsorship programs on Vox. The deal, which was facilitated by the Interpublic Emerging Media Lab, will create an advertising experience as rich, relevant and unique as the experience Vox delivers to its bloggers. With MRM Worldwide as a partner, Vox will be a space where advertisers can participate in conversations with consumers and provide value to the thriving social community of Vox members.

"Vox gives people the power to create their own, highly personalized web environment in ways not previously possible. By empowering its users, Vox makes meaningful community-building possible by individuals," said Reuben Hendell, CEO, MRM Worldwide. "We are thrilled to be the agency leader working with Vox on new ways for advertisers and consumers to interact with each other.”

Vox World Tour
Six Apart is celebrating the launch with a Vox World Tour Promotion that will send two lucky couples on a trip to see and experience the three cities where Vox was born - San Francisco, Paris, and Tokyo. Anyone who registers for Vox before December 31st, 2006 at 11:59:59 PM and posts an entry about what they like best about the service will be automatically entered into the drawing. A panel of judges will review the entries and vote on the best submission. Please go to http://www.sixapart.com/vox/voxworldtour.html for more information.

Latest News - DivX support! - COMING SOON!

Every day millions of users just like you share their personal lives online with Photobucket. We're super psyched about the latest news regarding our relationship with DivX. This is a feature that we're manically working to get out there to support for you all!

Press Release - 10.25.06 - Photobucket Adds Divx Media Format to Let Users Share and Publish High-Quality Video

PHOTOBUCKET ADDS DIVX MEDIA FORMAT TO LET USERS SHARE AND PUBLISH HIGH-QUALITY VIDEO

Partnership to bring superior video quality, device portability to Photobucket’s 27 million users

October 25, 2006 – Palo Alto, Calif. – Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com), the online personal media company where over 27 million people create, manage and share their digital lives, today announced a partnership with DivX, Inc. (NASDAQ: DIVX), a leading digital media company. Photobucket’s users will be able to upload and share personal videos using the high quality DivX video format, and enjoy the flexibility of playing their personal videos on one of the millions of DivX Certified consumer electronics devices in the market today.

Photobucket users upload over 30,000 new personal video clips each day, and with DivX they have additional choice and flexibility. Photobucket enlists an editorial staff of over 50 to review and moderate content so that partners have confidence that users’ personal media is safe for their community and advertisers.

DivX is one of the most popular video formats used by consumers today around the world. DivX is already shipping on 46 million consumer devices, and has been downloaded over 180 million times in the last four years, including over 50 million times during the last twelve months. The format is popular among videophiles largely because of the high quality experience it produces while preserving file sizes small enough to transfer online and playback across a wide variety of DivX Certified consumer electronics devices from leading brands.

“We’re committed to giving our users the creative power to publish and share their lives online,” said Alex Welch, Chief Executive Officer of Photobucket. “With DivX, Photobucket users can take their personal videos with them, in addition to sharing them on the web.”

"By partnering with Photobucket, DivX can bring our superior video quality and interoperability to Photobucket’s massive user base," said Mark How, Vice President of Business Development at DivX, Inc.

“It’s our goal to help create and build a better media future for consumers everywhere. Photobucket offers their community a clear and easy way to share the digital media that is important to them, and those values are closely aligned with our vision and approach.”

Blogging Stocks - Who Will Buy PhotoBucket: It's Not For Sale

Who Will Buy PhotoBucket: It's Not For Sale
Douglas McIntyre, Blogging Stocks

PhotoBucket, the huge online photo sharing site, is not for sale. But of course its CEO decided to have a press interview to make that clear.

In September, PhotoBucket was the 41st most visited site in the US. It had 14.7 million unique visitors, putting it ahead of sites like Overstock and Craigslist. The company is independent and backed by venture capitalists who are probably hungry for the kind of quick return that MySpace and YouTube VCs got.

By talking to the press and signaling that PhotoBucket could be had for the right price, the company is probably starting a bidding war. With photo-sharing and online photo development as two key community and commercial functions on the web, there are several potential suitors.

More at:

http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2006/10/20/who-will-buy-photobucket-its-not-for-sale/

Dow Jones - Web Startups May See More Mergers

Web Startups May See More Mergers
Mark Boslet, Dow Jones Newswires
PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) -- Google Inc.'s $1.65 billion acquisition of Internet video site YouTube Inc. has turned up the pressure on rivals to keep pace in a rapidly changing online environment.

"I think in general there are large technology and media companies that will buy their way in" to some of these companies, said Alex Welch, chief executive of photo-sharing site Photobucket Inc. of Denver.

Welch said Photobucket is not "officially for sale," but "it is possible for a company to be acquired in this space."

More at:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061018/web_startups_mergers.html?.v=1
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8KR84SO1.htm
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/technology/15790056.htm
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4268770.html
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20061018-1237-webstartups-mergers.html
http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=36870146813520
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/business/technology/15790056.htm
http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/business/technology/15790056.htm
http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/business/technology/15790056.htm

For continued syndication please click here:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=Web+Startups+%2B+Mergers+%2B+Photobucket&btnG=Search+News

Press Release - 10.17.06 - Photobucket Bolsters Executive Team With Key Hires in Sales, Finance and Customer Service

Photobucket Bolsters Executive Team With Key Hires in Sales, Finance and Customer Service

Seasoned Executives Bring Operational and Strategic Experience to Fast Growing Personal Media Company

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com), an online personal media company where over 25 million people create, manage and share their digital life, today announced the expansion of the company’s executive team. Recent hires include Karen Katz as Senior Vice President of Media Development, Peter Foster as Vice President of Sales, Greg Wimmer as Vice President of Finance & Administration, and Heather Dana as Executive Director of Customer Service.

"We’ve spent the past 3 years building a massive infrastructure and user base. It’s clear we can take better advantage of such scale with an expanded executive team," said Alex Welch, co-founder and CEO of Photobucket. The company recently announced it reached 25 million users that link their photos, personal videos and images to over 250,000 different websites and share them using email, IM and mobile devices. ComScore reports that Photobucket is the world’s largest photo-sharing service. Every day over 7 million personal photos, graphics and videos are uploaded to Photobucket for sharing with family, friends and the online world.

Karen Katz, Senior Vice President of Media Development, and Peter Foster, Vice President of Sales, are responsible for growing revenue through media development, advertising and sponsorships. Karen brings over 20 years of operational and leadership experience across start-ups and Fortune 500 companies. Over the past 7 years, while founding and managing high-tech media companies, Karen has built new advertising platforms and a "who’s who" list of advertisers as clients. She previously worked as Executive Vice President of Sales at FilmLoop, a desktop photocasting network, where she signed on some of the world’s leading consumer brands. Prior to FilmLoop, Karen co-founded and served as CEO of AdSpace Networks, raising nearly $40 million in venture funding and building a world-renowned digital media network for advertising in public places.

Peter Foster, Vice President of Sales, brings 10 years of advertising sales and management experience to Photobucket. Peter has spent his entire career working with major advertisers and agencies across the US, running top-notch sales organizations. Most recently, Peter was Senior Vice President of Sales for ValueClick Media/Fastclick, where he managed a national team of more than 30 people and annual revenues of more than $150 million. During his tenure there, he also played a key role in successfully integrating the two sales organizations after the acquisition of Fastclick.

Greg Wimmer, Vice President of Finance & Administration, brings over 20 years of finance, accounting and management experience at innovative technology companies. Prior to Photobucket, Greg held VP of Finance and CFO positions at several fast growing companies, successfully raising over $100 million in venture financing. Most recently, as CFO of Wavemarket, Greg negotiated key contracts with major mobile operators in North America, as well as distribution deals with equipment providers globally. He previously worked as a Management Consultant at Deloitte & Touche.

Heather Dana joins Photobucket as Executive Director of Customer Service. Heather is responsible for the delivery of world-class services and support to Photobucket users globally. With more than 20 years of customer service experience, Heather brings a wealth of operational and strategic knowledge to Photobucket. Previously, Heather served as Vice President of Customer Service at Monster.com where she dramatically increased customer satisfaction and improved the user experience.