Online Digital Photo Albums

Online Digital Photo Albums

You can find a wide variety of sites that allow you to upload and share your digital photos. Most online digital photo albums are free, although some free sites also offer a premium service with extra storage and special features. Others provide photo printing, so they give you free storage and sharing capabilities in the hopes you will use their printing services. While many digital photo albums are similar in nature, each site has its own style and features. Browse through the following sites to find the right photo album for your needs.

Flickr

Flickr offers a free online digital photo album allowing you to upload 20 MB of photos each month. View photos from friends and family, or browse public photos and leave comments. When you upload digital photos, you choose whether to make them public or private. Within private photos, you can even select whether pictures are visible to friends or family, so your mom doesn't have to endure shots of your bachelorette party. Flickr also offers special features that let you add slideshows and displays to websites and blogs.

My Photo Album

My Photo Album focuses on the whole album over individual photos, with hundreds of color and layout options for a unique presentation. You can make any album public or private and assign viewing rights to specific users. Create a community feel within your albums with comments, votes and polls. A page counter lets you know how many visitors are viewing your pictures. There are even monthly photo contests.

ImageStation

ImageStation from Sony allows you to upload, store and share unlimited images. The site even offers storage for up to 15 minutes of digital video clips. Online eCards and albums let you share photos with friends and family.

Other Options

Many sites offering Online Digital Photo Printing also include photo-sharing capabilities, so you can create online digital photo albums at Clark, the Kodak Easy Share Gallery, Snapfish, Shutterfly and York.

Beyond Digital Photo Albums

If you're looking for a little more in your photo-sharing experience, there are options beyond the standard online photo sites. Maybe you want to write about your great vacation or your child's first birthday party and not just show friends and family pictures of it. Blogging sites like Blogspot and LiveJournal allow you to upload images and add text entries. You can also create your own website with a free service like Geocities and post your pictures there. Many social networking sites like Myspace also offer space for sharing pictures. If you want to share travel photos, a few sites like IgoUgo.com and TravelBlog offer communities specifically dedicated to posting and sharing travel journals. One advantage to blogs, networks and personal websites is their availability to a wider audience, if that interests you. If you don't like the idea of random people stumbling across your pool party photos, then you can stick to sites that require a password or can only be accessed through direct links you share with friends.

A Word of Caution

While online photo albums are a great way to store and share your photos, you should back-up any important images on your own computer or a CD. Internet businesses come and go, and you don't want to lose your wedding photos or the only remembrance of your trip across Europe when a website shuts down.

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