The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, 3rd Edition

Back to the Beginning

The real rise of photo sharing websites grew with the popularization of the digital camera in the late 1990s. Digital cameras allow you to go directly from your camera to the web with only one step, and without any additional hardware or software. It is as easy as plugging your camera into your USB port and uploading your images. Of course, the next natural application of photo sharing that came about was through e-mail. Sending your brother photographs from graduation, or Grandma pictures of the kids, became increasingly popular—and increasingly demanding on the user to create an e-mail for each viewer. The desire for a one-stop personal photo gallery—with your own personal photographs available 24/7 forever—became an ever-more appealing concept.

The other trend that quickly emerged was the incarnation of web sites such as KodakGallery.com

(and others like it) that allowed customers to order prints made from their digitally uploaded photographs. As these sites developed greater capacity to store and view higher-quality (larger file size) photographs, thumbnails, and slideshows, their popularity amplified.

With the advent of desktop photo management applications such as iPhoto—containing photo sharing features and integration that allow direct photo uploading, e-mail, and drag-and-drop through predesigned templates—the task of organizing, uploading, and ...