9 photo sharing sites you might want to use in place of Flickr...

Now, like every eighth person on the planet I use Flickr, but I'm just posting this list in light of recents events at their site (owned by Yahoo! in case you didn't know, currently winning the "We're the most Evil Corporation" competition. Thanks Thomas Hawk) Okay, maybe we're not getting the whole story, but Yahoo has a history of doing Evil, so I wouldn't be surprised. Below are several other photo hosting sites and their main features, along with opinions:

1. Imagestation

unlimited storage space for photos


up to 15 minutes of videos

20mb max photo size

.jpg only (.tiff and .bmps accepted, but converted to .jpg upon upload)


40mb max video size

mpeg1/2 (.mpg), mpeg4(.mp4) and .3gp formats only

10-12 cents for 6" prints

prints available up to 20"x30"

many other products available with your photos prints on them


ships most places around the world, not to apo/fpo addresses

Can only access original photos if you buy a plan

Plans range from $5-$50 per year

Online photo editing

Imagestation was the first photo hosting site I ever used, and overall I still think it's pretty good. Unlimited bandwidth and storage for free is a definite plus, and 20mb jpgs, well I can't imagine anyone ever hitting that limit any time soon. Photos load quickly, and are viewed in a size small enough to discourage photo theft (unless you have a premium account, in case you need to disable availability of originals). Main drawback is that Sony hasn't done much to promote the community aspect--there's no tagging, no user-made groups. Albums can be included in Imagestation's predetermined categories, however. Posting photos to Blogger doesn't seem to work for me either. All in all an excellent site for stories photos and sharing with friends as well as making excellent prints all the way up to poster size. Don't use it for social networking purposes, however.

2. Picasaweb

• 1024mb combined photo and video storage
  
• 10mb max photo size (supports auto-resize on upload)
  
• 100mb max video size
  
• supports the following formats:

• Images: .jpg, .bmp, .gif, .png, .psd, .tif

• Movies: .avi, .mpg, .wmv, .asf, .mov (QuickTime)

• RAW data files, including cameras from Canon, Nikon, Kodak, Minolta and Pentax

• Click more details about video requirements
• Pay plans provide more storage space:

6.25 GB ($25 USD per year)

25 GB ($100 USD per year)

100 GB ($250 USD per year)

250 GB ($500 USD per year)

• Links to third-party print services
• Off-line photo editor with extensive features including sophisticated photo organization

I started using Picasaweb recently simply because the Picasa photo editor is so awesome at organizing your photos for you. Picasaweb also offers fewer social networking features than Flickr (favorite people and tags only, which are not clearly labeled) but, in my opinion, a much nicer interface EXCEPT that for some reason the search box only appears if you go to picasaweb.google.com (for some reason maybe because I'm in China my browser defaults to picasaweb.google.co.uk)... still needs some work. Photos load quickly though, and this site is decent if you just want to share photos online at small sizes. Pay packages are EXPENSIVE, Christ. Unique zoom feature makes it difficult for photo thieves, as well.

3. Photobucket

• 1gb space for photos and videos 25gb/month bandwidth limit
  
• 1mb and 1024x768 max photo size
  
• 100mb or 5 minute max video size, whichever comes first
• Supported file types include:

• Images - gif, jpg, jpeg, png, bmp, swf (these must be uploaded as images not videos)
  

• Videos - 3g2, 3gp, 3gp2, 3gpp, 3p, asf, avi, divx, divx, dv, dvx, flv, gif, moov, mov, mp4, mpeg4, mpg4, mpe, mpeg, mpg, qt, swf, wmv, xvid

• $25 a year to upgrade to pro account:

5gb space, unlimited bandwidth

2mb 2240x1680 max photo size

100mb and 10minute max video size

premium tech support

• 3rd party print services available

I haven't used Photobucket, don't know how well it stacks up. But from the features, it sounds like it ain't that great, to be honest. Definitely too limited for anyone more than just a snapshot taker (what cameras take photos at 4mp these days?) Still, can't be as evil as Yahoo.

4. Dropshots

• 500 photos of any size and dimension
• 20 videos up to 2 minutes long each
• Video formats supported:

MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video

MPEG-4 in all variants

QuickTime codecs including Sorenson v1/v3, Cinepak, RPZA and others

Windows Media Video 7/8 (WMV1/2)

Windows Media Video 9 (WMV3)

3gp, 3gpp, and 3g2

• Pay service for $60 a year or $100 lifetime

unlimited size and dimension photo uploads

10 minute videos

larger viewing size for photos 1500x1000 vs. 800x600

20% higher quality video encoding

This one sounds pretty good if you're willing to pay, but $100 for forever wouldn't be too expensive in the long run. No social networking features, this site seems to emphasize privacy.

5. Fotki

• 50mb photo storage limit
• 50mb email
  
• photos can be of any size and dimension(?)
• Photo formats include:

JPEG (*.jpg, *.jpeg)


PNG (*.png)

PSD (*.psd)

BMP (*.bmp)

GIF (*.gif)

TIFF (*.tif, *.tiff)

• Pay services for $50 a year (%40 discount at the moment, $30)

unlimited storage

500mb email

photo sales

Another one I haven't used, but the ability to sell your photos directly makes the pay account seem much more valuable. Photos are displayed at 500x500px, so thievery should be limited.
Photos can be tagged, and the search page looks easy enough to use: search users or photos, all of which are crosslinked and user profiles include public albums that can be viewed.

6. 23

• 20mb, 30 photos a month uploads (currently offering promotional 1gb upload bandwidth)
  
• unlimited storage, any size and dimension
• Pay service for 20 Euro/year

unlimited uploads

Looks like a new site, seems pretty simple. No printing, no video, just sharing. Supports tags and contacts (subscribe to photographers whose work you like and vice-versa). It'll be good if they up the upload limits a bit, although 20 Euro (about US$30) ain't bad for a year of service.

7. Webshots

• 1000 photos +100 for every month of membership
• 100 videos + 10 for every month of membership
• pay service for $30 a year

5000 photos + 500 for every month of membership

500 videos + 50 for every month of membership

etc.

This one's been around for awhile, but I've never used it. Uncle swears by it, and from his albums I'd say it works fine. Has print services, features for professionals to protect their copyright, sharing, blogging... whatever.

8. MyPhotoAlbum

• unlimited photo storage and uploads and ten videos AS LONG AS you're a member in good standing:

• Purchasing photo merchandise (including prints and enlargements) through the MyPhotoAlbum at least once every 365 days.

• Complying with our Terms and Conditions

• At least 1 visit to your MyPhotoAlbum account every 90 days

• At least 1 photo upload or album update every 90 days

• 8mb max photo size
• 100mb max video size
• File formats include:

• .gif (CompuServe Graphics Interchange format)
  

• .jpg/.jpeg (JPEG format)
  

• .png (Portable Network Graphics format)
• .mov (Quicktime movie file format)
• .avi (Audio Video Interleaved format)
• .wmv (Windows Media Video format)
• .mpeg (Moving Picture Experts Group format)
• .mpg (Moving Picture Experts Group format)
• .mpg4 (Moving Picture Experts Group format)

• Pay service $15 a year

adds unlimited video storage

no ads

Haven't used. Looks pretty, except you have to buy stuff to stay in good standing. Boo. $15 a year is cheap though, although the additional features (which I haven't listed here--their website isn't very up-to-date) don't seem to make it worth even that considering how much they offer for free, unless you hate ads.

9. Zooomr

• unlimited storage and a 50mb initial upload limit*

Zooomr looks like it has a lot of social networking features that Flickr has, BUT... it's the Amway of photo sharing sites, unfortunately. If you don't get your friends or others to join up and say you got them to join, your 50mb upload limit won't increase. That's 50mb total, not per month. For every person you get to join, you get 1mb more, and anyone who goes pro that you referred, you get 10mb. Sorry, but pyramid schemes are for Myspace users and Nigerian spam--oh, wait that's bank fraud, but whatever--so use Zooomr at your own peril. It also has a perversely ugly color scheme reminiscent of some Eastern European fashion thirty years ago.

UPDATE: Flickr reposted Rebekka's entry, reducing their Yahoo Evil score by a factor of 1.6. Unfortunately Yahoo is still Evil by 80,345 points, so I'm leaving this post up.