Photo sites on Internet offer choice
By Kim Komando
The Web makes it easy to share pictures with family and friends, with numerous free photo sites on the Internet. But finding one that is right for you takes a little research.
For instance, the amount of free storage varies. Some sites may give you a gigabyte or less. Others provide unlimited storage.
Following are popular free photo-sharing sites; there are many more. I'd stick with larger, well-established sites since, in the past, small sites have folded abruptly and members have sometimes lost all their photos.
Flickr limits file sizes to 5 megabytes. If you're uploading pictures just to be viewed online, that shouldn't be a problem. Only small images can be viewed. And only your 200 most recent photos may be viewed.
Flickr deletes free accounts after 90 days of inactivity and partners with other sites that provide printing and CD backups. For example, expect to pay $10 for a backup CD or $15 for a DVD.
You can upgrade to a Pro account for $25 per year. A Pro account gives you unlimited uploads. Files can be up to 10 megabytes. You can also view high-resolution photos, among other benefits.
High-resolution photos are stored for three months, allowing you to make large prints. After three months, photos are converted to a lower resolution suitable for small prints.
Snapfish will create CDs with 50 photos for about $10. Then it's $10 for an additional 150 photos.
Shutterfly sells prints and archival CDs. For $10, you can put up to 50 photos on a CD; prices increase if you want to put more images on the disk.
You can purchase prints, in addition to archiving CDs. A CD containing up to 50 photos is $10; prices increase with additional photos.
Kodak EasyShare Gallery offers two paid plans. Gallery Premier costs $25 per year. It provides picture protection; if your hard drive crashes, you're eligible for a $500 credit. You can download full-resolution copies of your photos and you can password-protect them.
Kodak's Gallery Premier with Print Plan gives you the same features as the Gallery Premier plan. You can also order 4-by-6-inch prints for 10 cents. It costs $50 per year.
Picasa Web Albums gives you 1 gigabyte of free storage.
Kim Komando's e-mail address is gnstech@gns.gannett .com.
