On the (Shutter) Fly!

If I've told you this one before, bear with me. It's worth repeating.

Shutterfly! Fly, as in very, very cool.

About six months ago, I wouldn't have said that. I would have griped about the upload speed, and errors, and inability to get logged on... but, as usual, I'm ahead of myself.

Shutterfly is a photo sharing and printing site. Once upon a time, you simply uploaded photos and you could then have them printed, or share an uploaded album with other users. Even in this relatively "primitive" form it was a quick, easy, and free way to share photo viewing, and prints (of any size) could be requested by anyone you'd invited to share in the album.

They started to add a variety of printing and project features, like calendars, cards, more sizes and editing options (cropping and sepia tone, for example) to make photo sharing even more fun. My mom, who isn't exactly a computer wizard, loved being able to ask me for prints from any uploaded family photos - and in about 5 minutes online, an order would be on its way to her.

Then Shutterfly created photo sharing websites, and that is a feature I have really enjoyed. Any uploaded album - or individual photo - can be added to any of your personal "websites," hosted by Shutterfly.

First, create an account. Then, select the "share" option. You're invited to follow a wizard which walks you through the steps of creating a shared website. You choose from a variety of templated layouts, including picking, cropping, and placing banner photos. Name your site, and invite others to view or share ownership. If your friends or family members share ownership, they're also free to add or caption photos.

Anyone invited to your site can order prints as well as viewing your site, and if you set your preferences that way, they'll also be notified whenever you've uploaded any new images. One friend does a monthly photo journal, including a little writeup of family activities, along with lots of photos (and videos!) of her growing children. Each month, I get a friendly email inviting me to see the latest - including a teaser photo from the newly added images. It's irresistible!

As I said, a few months ago, Shutterfly ran into what probably was server size and/or speed issues, and bogged down to a crawl. I thought it was my Internet connection, but then I heard from other users that they were having difficulty logging on, or uploading photos. Sheer laziness prevented me from finding another site - and after all, I did have a lot of time and photos invested in staying on this site!

The site had experimented with a new Flash uploading app, and perhaps that was the problem, as well, as it never seemed to work properly.

Then, about a month or so ago, all the problems disappeared and the service was back, faster, better, and easier to use than before. Right now, it's about as fast as upload as I can imagine, and the interface is a pleasure to use.

Flickr and Picasa are two other excellent entrants in the same space, but I find both of them to be aimed more squarely at the arts and/or "adult" market, whereas Shutterfly seems to be the family-friendly alternative, ideal for sharing the photos of the kids, the family reunion, the Little League game shots, or the Science Fair images.

I was away for a family weekend, and today it took me all of ten minutes to update my family photo website - and another five before I got comments back from family members. Now that's instant gratification!

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