Blog.Photobucket.com

Updates from Photobucket 12.13.06

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes are always happening at Photobucket and we wanted to make sure you made note of the latest enhancements that we’ve made for our users’ experience.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the album page (when you’re logged into your account and are scanning all your images and videos in that album) has gotten some design and functionality updates.

• Buttons above the thumbnail have been replaced with simple text links. The 'Share' and the 'Delete' buttons have switched places. We want to make sure that the design and functions available to you are less disruptive and instead highlight the features that you use the most often.

• Code information now has 'one-click' copy capabilities. Simply click once in the field, and you will see a yellow 'Copied' box appear. This makes it extraordinarily easier to copy links to share by instant messenger, email, or for embedding/linking on other websites.

• There is also a rework to the way thumbnails are displayed. You may notice that certain thumbnails look smaller than their neighbor. Any image that is uploaded at 160x120 or smaller will display the actual image dimension on the thumbnail.

The next thing you'll notice is more sharing options for your images, videos and slideshows. If you're already sharing your Photobucket images and videos by email or to other social networks, you'll notice that we've added our new partner Bebo to the mix. Bebo is a social networking site that Photobucket has partnered up with for the purpose of sharing Photobucket slideshows. There will be tutorials forthcoming on this that can be found on Photobucket's tutorial page. http://tutorials.photobucket.com/

The last thing we've updated is our video player, which has been overhauled both cosmetically and functionally.

More 'key frames' have been added so that newly uploaded videos should be smoother after conversion. You will notice better video quality overall.

There are additional video viewing features that let you jump to a different part in the video, rewind, set the volume, email the video etc.

More updates coming soon!

Press Release - 12.12.06 - Photobucket Launches Mobile Uploads for Photos and Videos

Photobucket Launches Mobile Uploads for Photos and Videos

New Service Lets Photobucket's 30 Million Users Capture and Upload Photos and Videos from Their Mobile Devices

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Photobucket (http://www.photobucket.com), the online personal media company where over 30 million people create, manage and share their digital lives, today announced the availability of its mobile photo and video service.

This latest Photobucket offering will allow users to send photos and videos from mobile devices directly to their Photobucket accounts. Photobucket's users range from music fans to gamers to independent journalists and bloggers. Now, they will be able to capture and share their experiences while in the moment -- effectively turning their photo and video-enabled phones into personal broadcast devices.

According to Gartner, nearly 48% of the total phones sold worldwide in 2006 -- or roughly 460 million -- have a camera built into them. Gartner projects that by 2010 this number will increase to a billion, or roughly 81% of the total phones sold.

"As people capture their lives on digital handheld devices, they want to share those moments immediately," said Alex Welch, CEO and co-founder of Photobucket. "Photobucket users are passionate about sharing events in their lives as they happen, and we are committed to making this real-time sharing simple and easy."

Each Photobucket user has a unique address and PIN number that allows them to send their photo and video clips via MMS. Once on Photobucket, the content can be shared and linked to various social networks, blogs, and message forums. Image and video albums may be public or private depending on user-elected preferences.

Photobucket Mobile! For Photos *AND* Videos!

We're excited to publicly announce the ability for our users to send photos *AND* videos from their mobile devices to Photobucket!

It's super easy!
Login to your account and find your mobile upload email address.  You can find it in "Uploading Options" panel of your album or from your Account Options.

This unique address is used to secure pictures uploaded to your album from email or a mobile device. Any upload without this PIN will be disregarded and the photos will not be uploaded.

Simply send an MMS message with your image as an attachment for uploading to your Photobucket account.

Photobucket provides mobile upload capability for free to our users. However some mobile service providers may charge their users for sending messages. Please refer to your mobile phone provider or mobile device user guide if you have a specific question regarding sending multimedia from your mobile device.

Web Hosting Industry Review - 0.1% of the Functionality for 99% of the Population

"0.1% of the Functionality for 99% of the Population"

Niel Robertson from Newmerix wrote a very insightful blog post last week about inversion as the cornerstone of the Web 2.0 revolution. (Niel used to be VP Research at Exodus.)

A successful web app, Niel says, looks like ZingFu, which puts a silly frame around photos that users upload. ZingFu offers about 0.1% of Photoshop's functionality, but it's instantly accessible to 99.9% of the population. In contrast, the other 99.9% of Photoshop's features might only be understood by less than than 0.1% of the population.

Following Niel's logic, a successful web hosting service might look like MySpace or YouTube or Flickr. Each of these sites offer a tiny % of the average web hosting package's functionality, but their simplicity appeals to an *enormous* audience. In contrast, the other 99.9% of web hosting features might not be widely understood among the general public. As a point of reference, none of my friends outside the industry have any idea what FTP is.

My favorite simplified web hosting case study is PhotoBucket, a company founded by Alex Welch, a former Level 3 exec. Wired reported a couple of weeks ago that PhotoBucket passed the 30 million user mark, and is signing up 80,000 new users per day. According to PhotoBucket's official blog, 30 million is also the number of (a) dog owners in the US, and (b) hot dogs consumed in baseball parks. Not coincidentally, neither activity requires HTML knowledge :)

http://www.thewhir.com/blogs/Isabel-Wang/index.cfm/2006/12/11/01-of-the-Functionality-for-99-of-the-Population

Mashable - Top 10 MySpace Add-On Sites of 2006

Top 10 MySpace Add-On Sites of 2006
Kelvin Beecroft, Mashable Labs

Kelvin Beecroft is the head of Mashable Labs, which conducts unique research into social networks, particularly widgets and other social networking add-ons. You can request research through the consulting form.

As the end of 2006 approaches, it’s clear that MySpace has spawned a cottage industry of sites supplying add-on content or media sharing services for profile owners. Many of these sites have seen phenomenal growth this year while at the same time questions loom around how to monetize. It’s interesting now to look at the top sites to see how they’re embracing such questions because for them this market is becoming big business.

So, who’s in the top 10 for 2006? The table to the right shows Photobucket way out in the lead as the top add-on site by hosting content (photos, videos and slideshows) for nearly 17 million MySpace pages. But there’s more to this statistic than meets the eye. The number three site, Freeweblayouts.net, interestingly uses Photobucket for hosting of their layout graphics such as backgrounds. The same thing is going on with ImageShack and other layout sites. These are mutually beneficial relationships because they indirectly increase the user base for photo sharing sites (thus increasing hits) while providing reliable image hosting for layout sites. This demonstrates the value of establishing good partners in fast growing markets and being able to identify who good potential partners might be.

More at:
http://mashable.com/2006/12/08/top-10-myspace-add-on-sites-of-2006/

Time is running out!

It's just a few weeks until the holidays are here so be sure to take advantage of Photobucket's Exclusive Supersale!

NOW is the time to make those custom Holiday cards, photo prints, calendars, mugs, and more!  Wait too much longer and it might be too late!

25% off all items and if you're a Photobucket Pro account user, you get an additional 10% off at checkout!

Tech Chrunch - Piczo Announces Partnerships - Growth Still Strong

Piczo Announces Partnerships - Growth Still Strong
Michael Arrington, TechCrunch

San Francisco based Piczo, a social network for young teenagers, continues to add 35,000 new registered users per day, and claims 2 billion monthly page views. We first covered them back in September, where we compared them with the other major social networks.
The UK continues to be Piczo’s biggest market, accounting for 40% of users and 50% of page views (see TechCrunch UK coverage of the company here).

Today at 5 am PST they will announce a number of distribution and other partnerships with major Internet companies, including YouTube, Flock, Photobucket and VideoEgg.

More at:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/12/06/piczo-announces-partnerships-growth-still-strong/

Press Release - 12.06.06 - Piczo Delivers Custom Multimedia Tools to More Than 10 Million Teen Users

Piczo Delivers Custom Multimedia Tools to More Than 10 Million Teen Users

Partnerships With Flock, Photobucket and VideoEgg Enhance Online Self-Expression

Piczo, Inc. (www.piczo.com ), an online social network that provides a safe and creative environment for teen self-expression, today announced partnerships with Internet multimedia companies Flock, Photobucket and VideoEgg, offering enhanced online multimedia tools to millions of teens worldwide.

The partnerships will give Piczo users more online creativity through video and photo-sharing and enhance online communication between friends. Users will now be able to browse and add videos to their Piczo pages with easy one-click access. They can also access existing photos and videos from their Photobucket accounts, and upload personal video content through VideoEgg's custom publishing tools. Users can download a custom Flock Piczo Edition browser for more personalized media sharing, online searching and instant connections to their friends online.

"Self expression is an important part of every teenager's life and it's our goal to provide users with the necessary tools to help them creatively show who they are to their online friends," said Jeremy Verba, CEO, Piczo. "Our new partners bring an expertise that allows Piczo users enhanced media sharing and better online searching, all while staying connected to their friends in a safer social networking environment."

When users download the Flock Piczo Edition browser, they will receive alerts when friends update their sites, providing an instant connection to their Piczo friends. Users will also be able to quickly and easily drag and drop content such as photos and videos into their Piczo Web page. Other features in the Flock Piczo Edition browser include access to bulk upload tools, uninterrupted login and web searching capabilities.

"With the new Flock Piczo Edition, users get the best features of Piczo and Flock in one experience," said Geoffrey Arone, founder and chief strategy officer, Flock. "Our users are saying they want easy media sharing capabilities and instant access to friends. Piczo is an ideal partner to help deliver this because of its strong relationship with more than 10 million teen users."

Piczo has also partnered with VideoEgg to offer a Piczo Edition of the VideoEgg video publishing solution to users. With this custom offering, Piczo users will be able to quickly and easily create, edit, and upload personal videos to their Piczo pages.

"By combining VideoEgg's customizable and user-centric video platform with Piczo's unique approach to virally building teen communities we've created an even more immersive self-expression environment for Piczo users," said Matt Sanchez, CEO, VideoEgg.

Through a partnership with Photobucket, Piczo users experience fast, reliable and efficient sharing and publishing of video and photo content online. Specifically, Piczo users with a Photobucket account can opt to paste videos and pictures directly from Photobucket when editing their Piczo site, enabling quick and easy access to their personal content.

Additionally, Piczo is partnering with video hosting companies to make it easier for teens to access a broad selection of video content to add to their Piczo pages. Through the partnerships, users will be able to add videos to their Piczo pages from Piczo as well as the video hosting sites via an easy one-click option.

"Increasingly, teens want to be able to share media and entertainment content online quickly and easily," said Ben Bajarin, principal analyst, Creative Strategies. "Through these partnerships, Piczo will be one of the first social networking sites to offer this level of media sharing and customization to its users."

The Photobucket features are available today. Users will be able to access VideoEgg content and download the Piczo Edition Flock browser in the coming weeks.

Winners in Photobucket's Contest!

Long overdue!

But a quick thank you to everyone who participated in Photobucket's member contests!

Congratulations to Kayla A for being the Grand Prize winner and to all the other winners with their fun submissions too!

Jennifer L with her MySpace Friends submission

Kayla A with her Pimp Your iPod and grand prize winning submissions

Patricia L with her Water Fun submission

Nicholas N with his Pets submission

Erik K for his rocking Summer Concert submission

and
Erik E for his animated submission

We apologize for the delay in announcing the winners of this contest.
Working with third party vendors to complete legal fulfillment, affidavits, and etc. wound up being a little more involved than we originally expected. We'll do better next time. Promise!

Exclusive Preview! We want your feedback!

We'd like to give you a special chance to let us know what you think about an upcoming enhancement to Photobucket!

Your album view is one of the most important parts of your Photobucket experience.  In a future update, we want to improve both the look and usefulness of this page in your album.

You'll notice that there are some slight modifications to the way that certain options look and feel.   For example, the buttons above the picture are now links instead of buttons; there is a frame around the picture to make it look more like a photo; and the description is relocated to beneath the picture.

These changes are predominantly cosmetic and would not dramatically alter the way Photobucket features work.       

Please take this survey and share the availability of this survey with your friends who also use Photobucket.

Photobucket Survey

We look forward to hearing your feedback!
Thanks again!