Photo hosting website

[abcdefg]

I’ll be returning to mainland China next month and want to set up an online photo hosting arrangement before I leave the US so I can share snapshots with friends and family back home. I’ve used Picasa Web Albums for that the past few years during China visits, but it became blocked in China this summer and fall.

Any ideas on what’s working these days such as Flikr, Photobucket, etc? I checked using a tool at http://www.websitepulse.com/help/testtools.china-test.html and they don't seem to be blocked at this moment.

Edited December 11, 2009 at 08:35 PM by abcdefg

[ShiYi]

If you're asking about features...

I've used both flikr and photobucket. They both have options of a public and private viewing setting.

Flikr is used more by professional photographers (I think) and they've got a nice photo editing tool (Picnik).

They both have the ability to create albums, can upload videos and most of the basic tools (ex: tagging, sharing, comments, editing).

Flikr has a drag and drop option when creating albums, it's a lot easier to use than Photobucket where you have to click each picture and select to move it.

For privacy, photobucket has an option where you can make an album private, and then add a password to it, so you can give the password to whoever you want to see the photos.

With flikr, if you were to make your photos private, I think whoever would want to view your photos, would need a flikr or yahoo account.

Photobucket has a 500 mb storage and a 10 gb bandwidth.

Flikr has a 100 mb and 2 video per month limit.

They both have upgrade options.

And flikr requires a Yahoo account.

That's most of what I know.

Hope it helped.

[liuzhou]

Photobucket is working in China.

Imageshack is blocked. (plus they regularly lose pictures!)

Flickr does work, but is incredibly slow.

[abcdefg]

Thanks Shi Yi and Liuzhou. That's just what I was hoping to learn.

Liuzhou, I read some of your fine blog today. Well done. Keep up the good work.

[liuzhou]

Thanks abcdefg!

[Senzhi]

I use Ipernity, as I'm not very fond of Flickr's customer service.

Ipernity is very similar to Flickr, but gives you more for free. And their customer service is one of the best I've seen in my whole life.

[liuzhou]

Ipernity looks good, but a quick search for "China" comes up with pages of pics from a certain cult!

Not sure how long they'll put up with that. Fingers crossed.

I've added a few pics to test - http://www.ipernity.com/doc/132682

EDIT: It is showing its beta stage. Lots of bugs. For example, rename a picture. It just creates a new a new picture with your new name but also keeps the old one. Getting 'rename' wrong seems a bit primitive to me.

Edited December 12, 2009 at 03:19 PM by liuzhou

[Senzhi]

I've been using them for three years ... without a single block. Of course, like with any site in the world ... its visibility future is uncertain in China.

Not sure why they still claim to be beta ... it's already like that for several years, actually from the start ... so I've been wondering about that too.

Oh ... and I never had a problem with renaming a picture: just click on the title, change and save. It just changes the title and won't upload a new picture. Not sure what's happening there for you, but if you contact Léa (= their customer service) "she" should be able to support you quite quickly. She should already be in your network list.

The only problem I have, is that an album cannot contain more than 1,000 pics ... but maybe I'm a little too demanding there.

[liuzhou]

Biggest problem is that they do not give links or embed codes as do Imageshack and Photobucket etc..

It took me five attempts to upload a video before it accepted it and now I can only play it back in their site.

Thanks but no thanks.

( and I deleted Léa immediately. Automatically shoving someone I've never heard of into a site as 'my friend' ain't going to work.)

It's a very amateur site.

[Senzhi]

Agreed with the privacy issue of Léa: it should be a request and more explanatory.

They do show embedding codes and links the same way as in Flickr: just click on top of the image on "all sizes", then choose the appropriate size you want ... and you'll find all the possible codes and links you need.

However, I can't comment on any video postings ... I only do photography. Neither do I upload through the site, but through an upload tool. As such, and for me, they have from the beginning achieved far more than Flickr was able to do.

Honesty admits to say that they copied a lot of the design of Flickr. Only faster.

Photobucket is a good alternative too, as well as Fotothing or Redbubble, according to tastes. There are plenty, the OP just needs to look around.

[COPE2]

what are some chinese video and photo hosts?