Blog.Photobucket.com

From the CES floor to the floor of the Grand Canyon...

By Tom Munro, CEO

CES 2012 was the second largest in its history, and the sheer scope of exhibitors, attendees and product announcements was impressive. I spent a good portion of my time in meetings, but had a unique opportunity to be whisked away from the madness, and experience one of our greatest national treasures first hand.

Nokia hosted an event to which David Toner, our VP of Marketing, and I were lucky enough to be invited. It began with a limo ride, where we headed straight to a heliport near McCarran International. Destination? The Grand Canyon. Armed with the brand new Lumia 800 series Windows phones (pre-US release) we flew in seven helicopters right down to the floor of the canyon. Enjoying near perfect weather, we departed the helicopters to be greeted by unparalleled beauty, with some snacks and champagne to boot.

Two and a half hours removed from the hustle and bustle of CES, we were in the midst of breathtaking scenery, some of which I captured with the Lumia 800. Not only did the camera have a very solid feel with comfortable dimensions, but it also has quite a unique look. Through an “unexpected drop-test” (i.e. accident), I found no evidence of impact, and because of the solid color of the body, no visible scratches. A must-have for an active dad.

Nokia’s host, Brett Murray, couldn’t have conceived of a more picture-perfect event. And, the company’s ingenuity and product design were well rewarded back in Las Vegas, when they won CNET’s Best of CES Award for Mobile Phones http://cnet.co/wonAFk. I hope you enjoy some of the pictures we captured, and I know this is an experience I won’t soon forget. Thank you so much to our hosts for such a fantastic opportunity!

-Tom

 

 

 

 

Photobucket is 10 Billionth App Downloaded from Android Market

By Tom Munro, CEO

We recently received some exciting news this week that we wanted to share. The Android Market crossed 10 billion apps downloaded this past weekend, and the Android team called us earlier this week to let us know that it was our Photobucket Mobile App!

We want to congratulate Android for this accomplishment – not only is 10 billion an incredible feat, but the amount of time in which this was accomplished is impressive – especially if you take a look at the last six months in which Android Market went from 6 billion to 10 billion downloads – it is staggering. But it’s really no surprise to us at Photobucket, because we know how rabid our Photobucket Mobile users are for Android. In fact, there are currently more than four million total installs of the Photobucket Mobile App for Android, and our mobile image uploads are approximately 400% higher on Android than what they are on the iPhone.

Photobucket actually has two popular mobile apps available for Android Market – the Photobucket Mobile App for Android and Snapbucket for Android, which allows users to snap, style, and share photos. Both apps are free, have an average rating of 4.1 in Android Market, and have several features exclusive to Android, including a patented auto-uploader that enables users to automatically upload all photos and videos from their phone to their Photobucket account.

Also interesting is that Photobucket’s mobile video uploads that have increased 14x since December 2010, driven in large part by the active Android user base.  Currently Android is driving about 40% of all Photobucket video uploads.

The improved quality of photos and videos from camera phones, ease of uploading, and constant availability are making them the default device for image capturing and sharing. The Photobucket Mobile app auto-uploader is making the process of uploading and sharing so seamless that we expect this growth trend to increase even more.

Congrats to Android on this accomplishment, thank you to our Photobucket employees for helping to make such powerful apps for the marketplace, and a big thank you to our customers (including the actual 10 billionth downloader!), for your loyalty and support!

-Tom

Photobucket CEO Tom Munro Interview with Robert Scoble

Hey Photobucket fans,

Check out this great video of Robert Scoble (@scobleizer on Twitter), talking with our very own CEO of  Photobucket, Tom Munro (@tamunro on Twitter) about Photobucket!

 

Here's some highlights for you busy folks:

• Photobucket hosts approximately nine billion photos & videos!
• We serve over three, sometimes four bilion images across the web to about 2.5 million different web sites on a daily basis.
• With that capacity and scalability, Photobucket was an obvious choice for Twitter's photo service.
• Photobucket serves about 25 million photos from mobile alone every month.
• During our July survey, with 2,500 respondents, half of you who responded said you take video on their mobile devices at least once a week, and our trends show even more than that.
• Our new mobile app, Snapbucket allows you to keep your original photo, so you have permanence along with fun filters & effects.
• We're planning on a new release of Snapbucket that will incorporate social aspects as well as video filters & effects.

Thanks to all of you who help make Photobucket great!

Photobucket's Mobile Photo Editing App, Snapbucket is Here!

Photobucket is pleased to announce the release of our latest smartphone app, Snapbucket! This cool new app gives you all sorts of cool features, including a wide variety of filters, vignettes, sets and frames! How does it work? Well, we're glad you asked - it's really easy: Snap, Style & Share!

Snap a photo with your smartphone.
Style it your way with multiple filters!
Share it with friends using Facebook or Twitter.

But that's not all! You can even create your own filter sets and save them, and the more you snap, the more effects you unlock!

Check out these cool features that Snapbucket gives you:

• Choose from filters, effects, vignettes and frames to style your photos your way.
• Create YOUR OWN unique filter sets and brag about them to friends.
• Show off your stylin' skills by sharing with friends to Photobucket, Facebook or Twitter.
• Unlock new effects the more you use Snapbucket, and get filters that'll make your friends green with envy.
• You'll always keep your original photo, so don't worry, go crazy with styling!

Check out our tutorial video below or find more information at the official Snapbucket page! Keep on snapping and remember: Photobucket for Life!

 

Photobucket Mobile

Use your cell phone to always stay connected to Photobucket! Whether you want to upload photos from your phone or want to browse cool photos on the go, our apps and mobile site have everything you need. We have  great apps for many smart phones including the popular iPhone, Android, and Blackberry. For more information, check out these and more!

New Android App

We have made some new improvements to our new Android app that allows you to:

• Autoupload: Allows you to automatically upload photos from your camera to your Photobucket account. 
• Download images so you can easily create a new wallpaper for your phone or send cool photos to friends.
• Easily manage your albums and photos by creating or deleting them on the go. 
• While your discovering new and cool photos on your phone, you can save them to your personal album.
• Browse Photobucket Find Stuff categories and discover amazing photos.

Learn more on how to to download the app! 

 

New Photobucket iPhone App!

You've asked and we've been listening! Our new iPhone app is redesigned and loaded with fun and easy features!

Use this app to capture all your special moments and upload directly to your Photobucket albums. Upload existing media from your local camera roll or new shots (and videos on 3Gs) straight from your camera. Looking for a quick "media-snack" during moments of downtime? Check out our Find Stuff categories or search our billions of photos. Easily download images to your device for use as wallpapers, contact ids and more. Share with others via email or grab image URL links to post on your blog or favorite social network. Manage your Photobucket albums and showoff your collection in full screen.

 Highlights include:

* Completely redesigned user interface.

* Search Photobucket's huge media repository, complete with search history.

* Browse Find Stuff categories and search results.

* Orientation-aware full-view images with pinch and zoom support.

* Easy access to image URLs.

* Media upload queue supporting in-app 'background' uploads.

* Album management: new navigation views, create, delete.

* Media management: download, share, move, delete, copy to my album, title and description editing.

Tips and Tricks:

* Navigate Find Stuff categories by swiping left and right over the category images.

* Pause the upload queue and resume when your signal improves, or your airplane lands.

* Delete entries in the upload queue by swiping from left to right over the entry.

* Toggle settings to improve app performance based on your connection.

* Use the app reset function in iPhone Settings to clear cache and restore to fresh-install state.

* Logout via the in-app settings tab.

Learn more here!

 

We are excited to have you try out the new app and look forward to your feedback and additional feature requests.

Send Photos to Your Phone

Our new Send to Phone option allows you to send your favorite photos from your album or cool images you find on Photobucket directly to your phone. Send photos to your phone to make them your wallpaper, forward them to your friends or make them a contact ID photo. Look for the “Send to Phone” link and blue phone icon on any image to get started. For more information and instructions see our tutorial.

 

Photobucket introduces native photo upload solution for Palm Pre

Native Integration Enables Easy, One Click Uploads to Photobucket.com

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. – June 8, 2009 – Photobucket (http://photobucket.com), the Web’s premier standalone photo and video-sharing site, today announced the availability of a native photo upload solution for the new Palm® Pre™ phone.  As a pre-installed photo upload partner, Photobucket lets Palm Pre users easily send photos taken on their mobile device to a Photobucket album without having to download an application.  Users just take a picture and tap on the Photobucket entry to send the picture to their Photobucket account.(1)

Photobucket introduces mobile photo application for Ovi store by Nokia

Free Mobile Photo Application Available Worldwide

San Francisco, Calif. – June 1, 2009 —Photobucket (http://photobucket.com), the Web’s premier standalone photo and video-sharing site, today announced the availability of a free Nokia-compatible Photobucket mobile photo application inside Ovi Store by Nokia.  This mobile application grants Nokia customers worldwide easy access to images on Photobucket as well access to personal Photobucket albums. It is now available for download from Ovi Store at store.ovi.com.

And the mobile news keeps coming ...

With more news about mobile coming out today, your Photobucket has the most comprehensive mobile offering of any photo and video sharing site. Your Photobucket works with more US carriers and mobile phone manufacturers than any other dedicated photo and video sharing site, and we're the only site with zero-click, one-click and on-deck upload for mobile phones.

Photobucket introduces instant photo uploader for T-Mobile phones

T-Mobile Customers Can Now Send Mobile Photos to Multiple Destinations Including Photobucket, Home PC and Email

San Francisco, Calif. -- March 18, 2009 — Photobucket (http://photobucket.com), the Web’s premiere standalone photo and video-sharing site, today announced the availability of an innovative mobile photo service exclusively for T-Mobile that enables users to send photos directly from mobile handsets to several destinations: a Photobucket album, a PC hard drive, or any an email address. 

Photobucket launches mobile application with Danger

Advanced Options Provide A Richer Photobucket Experience

San Francisco, Calif. -- March 19, 2009 — Photobucket (http://photobucket.com), the Web’s premiere standalone photo and video-sharing site, today announced the availability of a mobile Photobucket application exclusively for the T-Mobile Sidekick. Built in conjunction with Danger, Inc. a Microsoft subsidiary and software services provider for the mobile device, this feature-rich application enables users to access and interact with Photobucket media directly from anywhere. 

The new application provides users with the richest mobile experience to date.  Users upload photos and videos from their handset directly to their Photobucket album. From here, there are a number of options, including adding and editing titles, descriptions and tags, as well as rotating and resizing images. Additionally, users can:

• Create a Photobucket account 
• Log into Photobucket to access their albums  
• Browse and search images and videos on Photobucket
• Browse other users’ albums 
• Share images

 “Photobucket is thrilled to team up with Danger to bring subscribers the most comprehensive mobile application for Photobucket to date,” said Alex Welch, President of Photobucket.  “Photobucket is always seeking out ways to make photo sharing easier and more convenient and this collaboration enables our users to share and manage their photos easily while on the go.”

Great news for T-Mobile Sidekick fans on Photobucket!

Are you lucky enough to have a T-Mobile Sidekick? Great news today! Photobucket is launching a brand new mobile application that lets you: Log into your Photobucket album Upload photos and videos that you've taken directly to your Photobucket album Share your photos and videos with everyone you know Add titles, tags, descriptions to photos and videos on Photobucket Browse and search billions of fun photos and videos on Photobucket Browse your friends' albums on Photobucket

To learn more about the app, along with instructions on how to download, go to http://www.poweredbydanger.com/inthewild/news/38188

The application can be found on your T-Mobile Sidekick's Download Catalog.

This Photobucket application is available on the T-Mobile Sidekick LX, T-Mobile Sidekick Slide, and T-Mobile Sidekick.

The application will cost $1.99 to download, and will cost $1.99/month thereafter.

Photobucket announces new, expanded photo and video-sharing features

Web’s Top Photo-Sharing Site Also Debuts New Mobile WAP Site

San Francisco, Calif. – MARCH 11, 2009 – Photobucket (http://photobucket.com), the Web’s premier stand-alone photo and video-sharing Web site, today launched a new, innovative set of features that expands the way users share photos and videos across multiple Web sites. By partnering with Gigya, whose technology has become the standard for connecting content with the social web, and leveraging its own open API platform, Photobucket now enables its more than 48 million unique monthly users worldwide* to utilize a simple point-and-click “share” interface to publish their photos and videos across more Web sites than any other stand-alone photo and video-sharing site.

Version 2.0 of our WAP site for Photobucket launches today

The first release of our WAP site was just a little over a year ago. A new version comes out today, with new stuff including:

Sprint customers can show photos and videos on Photobucket

This blog post references a press release issued today, Monday November 24, from Sprint. Sprint announced an enhancement to Picture Mail that allows Sprint customers to send digital photos and videos straight from their phones to Photobucket.

Verizon Wireless and Photobucket Launch Instant Mobile Photo Uploading

Web’s Leading Standalone Photo Site Makes Photo Sharing Fast and Easy For Verizon Wireless Customers

Basking Ridge, NJ & San Francisco, Calif. -- November 13, 2008 — Verizon Wireless, the nation’s leading wireless provider, and Photobucket (http://photobucket.com), the Web’s premier standalone photo and video-sharing site, today announced the availability of a new mobile photo service on select Verizon Wireless handsets that enables Verizon Wireless customers to easily send photos from a mobile device to a Photobucket album.  The application will launch exclusively for Verizon Wireless customers and is available for download from Verizon Wireless mobile storefront by texting ‘photob’ to 2777, in the Community and Sharing category of the Verizon Wireless Get It Now catalog or by visiting http://photobucket.com/mobile.

Verizon customer? Got questions about Photobucket and your phone? Here are the answers!

Here are some questions you may have about the Photobucket Mobile Uploader, which launched today for Verizon customers:

What can you do with your mobile phone on Photobucket?

With today's release of the Photobucket Mobile Uploader for Verizon customers, we thought it's a good time to list all the things you can do with your mobile phone on Photobucket.

How many times have you seen people holding up mobile phones to take pictures?  Have you wondered what they do with all those photos? Do you know how to share mobile phone photos with friends and family?

Today’s mobile camera phones are capable of capturing high quality pictures and videos.  At Photobucket, we’ve found that people are relying on their mobile camera phones more and more – particularly when they encounter the unexpected, funny situations or memorable events.

In a recent survey of Photobucket users, 80% said they had a camera in their mobile phone, and 36% said they used it once a day or more!