Blog.Photobucket.com

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!

New and Exciting Features on Photobucket Coming Soon!

We've got all sorts of cool new features coming soon to Photobucket! You'll be able to explore, find, follow and discover the best of Photobucket!

To get you started, here's two easy steps:

1. Choose a profile pic for your account. (Go to Account Settings under your username and click "Change Image")
2. Check your album privacy settings. (Click the My Home tab, then Privacy).

Remember, the more public photo albums you have, the more you can share with friends and family!

Keep an eye out for more from Photobucket, coming soon!

Photo Hack Day this Weekend!

Hey developers:

 

Photobucket is the proud sponsor of the free-to-attend "Photo Hack Day" in NYC this weekend (Aug 20-21, 2011). We invite all you developers to build something awesome from our API, which is used millions of times a day by 3rd party applications!

 

Here are some ideas to get you started:

 

• A live Photo chatroom - think turntable.fm or chill.com but using Photobucket photos!
• Augmented reality/3D - put photos on real life walls (mobile app), or a 3D walkthrough gallery
• Face detection - integrating face.com
• Photo editing - use aviary APIs to edit Photobucket photos
• Photo sharing - use twilio API to send photos to friends
• HTML5 Photo slideshows
• Kinect-enabled photo browsing - create a futuristic photo browsing experience

The hack that best uses the Photobucket API wins a $100 Amazon gift card, and the best hack overall will be featured on their billboard in Times Square!!!!

Our very own Justin Hart (@onyxraven on Twitter) will be attending to provide support for developers using the Photobucket API. Justin will also be giving away free pro accounts to devs who use our API, so be sure to stop by and say hi! Get more details and register at http://photohackday.org.

Photobucket & Twitter - Better Together!

Here's a reminder about sharing pictures with Twitter, powered by Photobucket - a great experience!

Photobucket and Twitter have teamed up to bring you a better photo-sharing experience, using the 140-character Tweets you've come to know and love! Now, whenever you share a photo from Twitter, you get the power of Photobucket to share your pic with the world:

If you don't already see the little camera in your Twitter account, don't fret - it's coming your way soon!

Check out what these reviewers have to say about Photobucket & our Twitter partnership:

GuardianUK: "It was Photobucket's scale that got the deal - 100 million users and 8bn uploads. Given the hysterical reaction when Twitter itself falls over, it's quite understandable that Twitter has chosen a robust, large scale partner over a smaller firm."

GigaOm: “Photobucket just made a major leap forward on the comeback trail. The online photo sharing pioneer confirmed Wednesday its technology will power Twitter’s highly anticipated native photo sharing feature.”

MobileMarketingWatch: “And when it comes to pictures, Photobucket is the sage atop social media’s hill. With 100 million users and more than eight billion uploads, Photobucket has become the world’s leading dedicated photo and video sharing service.”

All Things Digital: “Web turnaround stories and brand revivals are few and far between. But the once-forgotten Photobucket seems to have cemented itself on firm footing with a deal to host photos for Twitter’s new native photo-sharing service.” (Don't forget to check out the video interview with Tom Munro, our CEO!)

LifeHacker: “Twitter is partnering with Photobucket to host these photos but you don’t need a Photobucket account to use it. And photos are only visible on Twitter, and not on Photobucket’s image sharing site. Beneath every photo is a “powered by Photobucket” note.”

----------

UPDATE  8/10/11:

All Twitter users should now have access to the photo sharing service! Check out these great reviews:

Twitter Photo Uploading Now Available For 100% Of Users

‎TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/09/twitter-photo-uploading-now-available-for-100-of-users/

Twitter's in-app photo sharing comes to all users

‎VentureBeat: http://venturebeat.com/2011/08/09/twitter-photo-sharing-rollout/

Twitter rolls out photo sharing feature, mobile still to come

‎Examiner.com: http://www.examiner.com/technology-in-national/twitter-rolls-out-photo-sharing-feature-mobile-still-to-come

Twitter Rolls Out Photo Sharing to All Users

‎Mashable: http://mashable.com/2011/08/09/twitter-photo-sharing-all/ 

Twitter integrates photo-sharing, plans galleries

‎ZDNet UK: http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/communication-breakdown-10000030/twitter-integrates-photo-sharing-plans-galleries-10024033/

 

Some Users...

This maintenance has now ended and service is back to normal. If you are having problems accessing the site, please email support@photobucket.com

 --

Today (July 12th, 2011), at 5am MDT (UTC -6 hours), some users will notice some difficulties logging in to their Photobucket account. This is a scheduled maintenance, and everything should be back to normal within a few hours.

Thanks for your patience.

-The Photobucket Team

--

Photobucket now has unlimited storage!

The web’s premier photo and video site on the web, Photobucket.com is now giving unlimited storage* for all users! This means that free users get all of the below:

• Unlimited photo storage
• There will be a limit of 500 videos for free users
• All storage for free users will be resized (we will not keep originals)
• Bandwidth restrictions will remain at 10GB/month for free users

Now’s the time to sign up for an account with Photobucket and upload all your photos and videos to share with family and friends!

And if that’s not enough great news, if you Tweet, post on Facebook or email your friends with the news, you could win an iPad 2! So what are you waiting for? Get your upload on with unlimited storage at Photobucket! Click here to learn more.

 

*Photobucket reserves the right to limit excessive use and the unlimited storage offer pertains to non-commercial use only.

Awesome Updates!

Hey Photobucket Users,

We wanted to let you know about a few cool new features we've made to the website:

Main Functional Changes:

• There are now additional share entry points.  This means that after editing or creating a slideshow, you’ll now be dropped into the share flow.
• Chunked uploads after a upload failure.  If your network connection goes south during an upload, we put you into “chunked” upload mode which is more resilient (but a little slower).  This should significantly reduce upload failures.
• Increased visibility for videos in image search.  When you search images, you’ll now see some related videos at the bottom of the results list.

Enjoy the changes and remember: Photobucket for life!

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!

 

Hardware Issue Resolution

Hello Photobucket Users,

As many of you know, Photobucket experienced a hardware failure last week and some of you were not able to access your accounts or serve photos and videos to your sites. I know that this has been very frustrating. I sincerely apologize to each of you who were affected by this outage. I am happy to report that all accounts are now back online. 

Last Monday evening, we experienced a hardware failure; the odds of such a failure are over 1 in a billion. Throughout this time, we worked closely with our storage and data management partner to make sure that all measures were taken to preserve and restore all data. No data was lost, but the recovery process took much longer than expected. Going forward, we will be adding an additional layer of redundancy as an added measure of protection.

Throughout the last two weeks, the Photobucket team was inspired by your comments and patience. We love your passion for Photobucket and we thank you. I would also like to thank the Photobucket team that literally worked day and night to resolve this issue.

Thank you,

Tom Munro
CEO

Hardware Issue Update

Photobucket Users,

For those of you who are still affected by the current hardware failure, we’d like to let you know that we’re making good progress on the resolution. The complexities are still hindering us from making an accurate time-line for the completion of the solution. However, we are optimistic that tomorrow’s update will contain more information and give us a better idea on the completion of the solution.

Thanks for your patience,

Jim Goss

VP of Operations

Hardware Issue Update

Hello Photobucket Users,

We’ve worked through the weekend with our infrastructure vendors on the issue that’s still affecting some of our users. Despite the many layers of redundancy that Photobucket utilizes in our data centers, we experienced a rare multiple hardware failure.

The probability of such an event is extremely rare (1 in 1 billion).  Since it is so rare, we have had a difficult time estimating a resolution.  We should have a resolution or at least a better timeline for resolving the issue by tomorrow (4/19/11) or Wednesday (4/20/11). At that time, we will post here, as well as our Facebook page and on Twitter.

We do understand your frustrations and there is a large team of Photobucket employees, consultants and vendors working hard day and night to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.

Yours,

Jim Goss

VP of Operations

Maintenance Update

Hi Photobucket users,

I would like to extend my thanks to each of you who are still affected by the maintenance outage for your patience. Since my last post, our team has restored service to about a quarter of the remaining affected users - leaving less than 0.2% of users still experiencing this problem - and we continue to work day and night to get everyone back online.

We at Photobucket are very focused on resolving this error as soon as possible, and do acknowledge that those of you who are in the last remaining group are frustrated. We are continuing the extended diagnostic and recovery process, and will not rest until we are finished. The complexity of this process is unfortunately making a definitive end time impossible to accurately estimate.

Many of you have reached out to us through email, Facebook and Twitter, and we thank you for your feedback. Please be secure in the knowledge that our team is working persistently on this matter.

Yours,

Jim Goss

VP of Operation

Maintenance Update

Photobucket customers,

Thank you all for your continued patience while we work persistently on this issue. While this is still affecting only a very small percentage of our users, we realize it is a big issue for those impacted. We’d like to give you a current update as we continue to work night and day on resolving this issue.

In order to clarify and dispel some concerns, let me assure you that Photobucket has not been hacked, but instead we are working through a hardware issue. Right now, we’re continuing the process of going through an extended diagnostic and recovery process.

We understand your frustrations, and promise you that we are doing everything we can to bring everything back on line as quickly as possible. However, we do feel it best to advise the affected users that this process is highly unusual and time consuming.

Thank you for your patience, and for all your feedback.

Yours,

Jim Goss

VP of Operations

Maintenance Update

Photobucket customers,

Let me begin by once again expressing my apologies for the issues you have been experiencing, and for the delay in restoring service. We continue to work diligently to resolve the problems and would like to keep you up-to-date on how things are going.  The vast majority of you that were impacted should now or very soon notice that your accounts and images are back up again. However, not every user has been restored to service; we still are working to restore less than 1% (0.25%) of our user base.  If your account is still not working, please be assured that we know about it and continue to work toward fully restoring service for all users as quickly as possible. We will continue to provide updates as they occur.

We hear your frustration and appreciate all of your feedback.

Thank you,

Jim Goss
VP of Operations

New Maintenance Update

Photobucket customers,

We again apologize for the issues some of you are experiencing, and for not having fully resolved the issue as of yet. We want to make sure we are keeping you up-to-date on what is happening and what we are doing to fix the problem as quickly as possible.

We experienced a problem with a portion of our infrastructure, which affected the ability for some users to log in and access their account. We immediately began maintenance to fix the problem, and have been working diligently to get things running again as quickly as possible. However, due to the sheer number of files and the enormous amount of data involved, this is taking a significant amount of time and much longer than we initially anticipated.

Please know that we are doing everything possible to restore service as quickly as possible. We understand your frustration and we will continue to update you as we get better estimates around a completion time.

Thank you for your patience,

Jim Goss

VP of Operations

Maintenance Update

Hey Photobucket Fans,

We’re still experiencing some maintenance issues which affect a small percentage of our users. Affected users won’t be able to log in, and all link images will be replaced with the following:

Rest assured your photos are safe, and we’re working diligently on getting this fixed ASAP.

Right now, the estimated time to verify all data is approximately after midnight today (04/12/11), 12am MDT (-6 GMT). We apologize sincerely for the error, and we understand the problems this creates.

Thank you for your patience, and we’ll keep you updated through our Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/photobucket) and Twitter pages (http://twitter.com/Photobucket).

Thanks,

The Photobucket Team.

Win a $200 Gift Card for Your Converse All-Stars!

Hey US Photobucket users:

Did you know you can win a $200 gift card to Journeys, just for posting a color splash photo of your Chucks? Well, you do now!

It's simple to enter:

1. Color splash a photo of your Chucks in Photobucket and enter the contest here.
2. ???
3. Profit!

It really is that simple - so go grab your Cons and take a picture now!

Win a Sony Dash!

Want to Win?

With spring right around the corner, what better way to get excited about warmer weather, flowers and birds chirping than by sharing your favorite spring photos to win something awesome! From trees blooming to green grass popping through, upload your photos for a chance to win a new Sony Dash!  With the Dash, you can have your favorite photos pushed to you automatically.

Not only is Photobucket giving away five new Dashes to the winners of the contest, but Sony’s also offering a $20 instant rebate to everyone at participating retailers from 3/13/11 - 4/2/11. You can’t lose with this deal!

The Sony Dash displays your Photobucket pictures anywhere with Wi-Fi, and utilizes over 1000 free apps for real time information, personally delivered. For more information, see www.sony.com/dash or this cool preview video.

How to Enter:

To enter, go to the “Spring Forward Photos” contest. Good luck, and keep sharing your photos!

Spoofing Email Scam Notification

It has come to our attention that some Photobucket users are receiving the following spoof email:

Subject: photobucket.com Account- Closure
From: "photobucket@admn" <photobucket.gm.admn@gmail.com>

Thank you for using the internet top medium for photo sharing.

After looking into the situation it appears  your photobucket account
is in danger of being closed
permanently, to prevent this action please reply

to this email as soon as possible  with the following

* Account  name
* Account password
* First and Surname

We do regret the frustration that this may cause but in order to
restore and/or maintain account status we have to be able to verify
evidence of them from our records.

We thank you for your patience while this issue is being handled.

Should you require further assistance, please submit another help
request the next time you are online. We hope you continue to enjoy
your experience with photobucket

For any further  questions, please refer to our site at
http://pic.pbsrc.com/help/PhotobucketHelp.htm



Regards
Server Master Richard
Customer Services
Fox Interactive Media, Inc

Under no circumstances should you email your login information to this address. No one at Photobucket will ask you for your username & password from an email such as this.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email support@photobucket.com.

Thanks,

The Photobucket Team

Site Maintenance Tonight at Midnight

Attention Photobucket fans:

The site will be down tonight (March 3rd, 2011) from 12 midnight to 1:30am MST for maintenance. Here's some relevant information for you all:

1. The website and content moderation will be unavailable during this time.
2. Direct links will continue to be served.

Thanks for your patience!