Share Photos Easily With Anyone, Anywhere

Even in the 21st century, friends and relatives always promise to share their photos after a party, vacation, or other special event--but hardly anyone ever does. Why? Because, despite recent advances in photo sharing, it's a pain in the backside.

The time-honored method of sending out pictures is via e-mail attachments. But this approach limits the number of snapshots you can send, and creates organizational hassles for the recipients. Two popular photo-hosting services--Flickr and PicasaWeb--offer ways take your snapshots to the Web, but not everyone loves Flickr's confusing interface or PicasaWeb's antiseptic one. And what about sharing on the run, such as when you're away on vacation? Surely you don't have to wait until you get back to your PC?

If you're tired of letting your best pics languish in an online gulag, it's time to look at some approaches to photo sharing that go beyond the basics.

Get Into Photo Networking

You already know about social networking. But while Facebook and MySpace are great for keeping in touch with buddies, they're not so hot for sharing pictures. Your photos need a social network of their own. For example, suppose that you take a vacation with a group of friends. At the end of the trip, everyone has a camera full of photos--and no easy way to swap them.

Enter Phanfare, a Web service designed specifically for photo-based networking. Like many online photo-hosting services, Phanfare lets you upload your pictures to a Web album and then share that album with others. And because (like Flickr) the service offers shared group albums, other users can add their own photos. Thus, everyone who went on the trip can contribute his or her snapshots to the same album, complete with captions and comments.

Phanfare really shines with its laundry list of sharing-centric features. Friends and family members can view slideshows, of course, but there's also the option of background music: a selection of such classical music as Pachelbel's "Canon in D," or the option to use any song uploaded from a user's PC or iTunes library. Sharers can easily download individual photos or entire albums at high or reduced resolution. And they can order prints and photo gifts from third-party services such as Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly, and Snapfish.

In short, Phanfare is a well-rounded, easy-to-use service. Newcomers can obtain a free account with 1GB of storage. Upgrading to unlimited storage will run you--and each other sharer--$55 per year. Though Flickr is a better deal at $25 annually for unlimited storage, it doesn't offer batch downloading and has fewer printing and gift options. The extra $30 buys you an interface that's much easier to use and family-friendly sharing features that simplify distributing your pics to any member of your group who wants them, while keeping strangers from flipping through your snapshots.