Genealogy Pointers

The photo technology has come a long way, from having to take your photos in to be developed to loading your pictures from your digital camera right onto your computer. Sharing photos has changed from mailing photos to family and friends to sending your photos right through the Internet for instant viewing. There are a number of services out there for the individual to choose from for sharing their photos and the amazing thing is that several are free.

You can upload tons of photos, create fun albums or slide shows, order prints and you can even add voice or video for your photo album presentation. These are just a few of the tools you can use for sharing old and new photos with your family and friends.

Here are just 5 of those services that you might want to check into for your photo collection.

1.Yahoo Photos
Up loading your pictures are very easy, all you have to do is drag and drop. You can set up albums for each category of group pictures plus you can allow the whole world to view them or just make them private. Yahoo Photos has no limit as to how many and the size of the photos you want to work with. You can work with photo editing tools, organize your photos with tags, and order prints plus sharing your photos online with family and friends. Yahoo Photo takes care of the re-sizing for viewing online so you don’t have to. The best thing with Yahoo Photo is that it’s free!

2. Scrapblog
This site is a combination of a blog, online photo sharing, and a digital scrapbook. Scrapblog is a great service for family historians to share their old family photos and stories that go with each photo. The software is easy to upload your photos by the drag and drop method and it’s free. There layout is what you see is what your get, design.

3. Bubbleshare
Bubbleshare will let you create photo albums and post them to the Web for the whole world to see or if you choose, for private audiences only. They have an easy upload for photos and once you have designed your photo album, you can change the layout of your photos about any way you would like. You can add comments, record voice annotations, and lots more. Bubbleshare offers you unlimited photo uploading but there is one catch, you have to put up with Google Ads that will appear on the side of your album page. The best thing with Bubbleshare is that it’s free!

4. Amigila
Amigila is basically a family photo sharing service. You can share photos with a family tree navigation program, write a journal, do a family blog and also share recipes. Uploading your photos is easy from your computer or you can even upload them from two other photo sharing Web site, Flickr and Riya. You can set your photos up for the whole world to see or private where you have to have a password in order to view. Amigila does charge for their services of $49.95 but this covers your entire friend and family network.

5. Phanfare
Phanfare offers you a large variety of photo album templates for you to be as creative as you would like for online sharing. It will let you designate whom you wish to share your photo albums with plus the users that you allow to view your photos are able to download any of the images they would like in high-quality so they can print the photos themselves. Phanfare isn’t free, they do charge for their services but you can pay for what you get. They don’t have any ads on your photo album page and the editing tools are great.

The best way of choosing a photo sharing service is to think about what exactly you want to be able to do with your photos; then explore your options.