Have you ever looked at your Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) Flickr account and thought, "Why am I doing this? I can just throw my pics up on Facebook"? If this has crossed your mind, you're not alone. In fact, many photo-sharing sites - Snapfish (NYSE: HPQ), Photobucket, Picasa (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Shutterfly, as well as Flickr - are asking the same questions. With the development and enhancement of photo management capabilities in major social networking websites, niche players need to find new ways to stay relevant.

The situation is still far from grim. Fed by traffic from their behemoth owners, the photo-sharing sites remain substantial forces, and they are currently home to more than 20 billion pictures. There's still plenty of interest in these environments ... which has been bolstered by specific features that make the likes of Flickr attractive to both professional photographers and amateur shooters. The ability to order prints and personalize portfolios, for example, still provides an edge over sites like Facebook and MySpace (NYSE: NEWS).

Nonetheless, the threats from the social networking space are quite real.

Continue reading Photo Sharing vs Social Media: Who Wins?

Photo Sharing vs Social Media: Who Wins? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is part of our Hottest Products of 2007 feature. Also check out our other Hottest Products of 2007 posts and let us know which product you think is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

In one pocket, perhaps you have your camera, which takes great, high-resolution shots. Maybe it was even one of 2005's hottest products.

In the other pocket is your cell phone. The photos it takes are low res, but you don't have to upload them to your computer before sharing them with friends.

The Nikon Coolpix S51c is one of our hottest products of 2007 because it captures the best of both worlds. As a camera, it offers 8.1 megapixel resolution, which will stand up to coffee-table sized prints, in an elegant case that fits neatly in your shirt pocket.

Continue reading Hottest Products of 2007: Nikon Coolpix takes photo convenience online

Hottest Products of 2007: Nikon Coolpix takes photo convenience online originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Is TechCrunch being Punk'd? A case of Google voodoo and Ashton Kutcher's bare torso originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Kim Il Jong
• Larry King
• Ziggy
• Mike Tyson
• Osama bin Laden (only in U.S., however)
• Draco Malfoy
• Joan Rivers
• Al Gore
• Tom Barlow (if you knew me, you'd understand.)

Gallery: Crocs: Love 'em or hate 'em?

Crox -- beauty is foot deep, but ugly goes right to the bone originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The year has been tough for tech IPOs, that is, until recently. Some of the blow-out offerings include DivX and Riverbed.

Today there was another tech deal: Shutterfly. True, the stock increased only 3.7%. But, then again, the stock was priced at the top of its $13-$15 range.

Shutterfly was founded in April 1999 and even has a dot-com legend as its Chairman, Jim Clark. He founded Netscape, Healtheon/Web MD Corp, and Silicon Graphics.

As for Shutterfly, it is a Web-based consumer property that allows users to share, print and preserve their pictures. It is also possible to turn these pictures into physical photos and even books.

But unlike many dot-coms, this one has morphed into a real business. Over the past year, sales have been roughly $108 million. In fact, revenues are growing at 30%+.

There are certainly risks. After all, the company has lost money this year. Also, the current valuation is hefty - at 3X revenues.

Yet, with the Christmas season coming, there is probably some momentum left in this stock. But definitely do not expect a smooth ride.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and operates InvestorOffering.com.

Shutterfly Takes Flight originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 29 Sep 2006 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I think it is generally recognized that the Web 2.0 world loves flickr, with its viral, community-focused fun and its AJAXerrific cool. But a recent report from Hitwise shows that flickr is a distant sixth in terms of market share, at just less than 6%, beaten handily by 44% dominator PhotoBucket (the company's competitive strategy: be a storage backend for users who wish to post photos to MySpace), and even by the far less sexy service of flickr's parent, Yahoo! Photos, at 18% (in second place). Webshots Community, Kodakgallery.com (formerly Ofoto.com), and ImageShack all rank ahead of flickr in terms of market share.

There's a story here, that flickr may seem cool but it's not even a big deal in the traffic big dogs. I don't know if I buy it. LeAnn Prescott, who blogs the market share charts, notes the MySpace strategy of PhotoBucket and mentions that three photo sharing sites in the top 10 are getting the vast majority of their traffic from the teen-centric social network, including Imageshack and Slide.

It's all about the growth of the platform, and the longevity of the business strategy. As a hard-core photo enthusiast who lives and breathes Web 2.0, I've used most of the non-MySpace services. I did Webshots Community, then I switched to Ofoto, and when Kodak bought it I was using Yahoo! Pictures and my own web site. And then I discovered flickr. Now I have 1,859 photos uploaded there. I think that I -- an early adopter who has already convinced any number of friends, family, and colleagues to switch to flickr -- am a fair indicator that the prospects for flickr are good. I have to wonder if PhotoBucket and others who rely so much on one source of traffic.

There it is: the real question. Is that one source a long-term play? Will MySpace still be rocking and rolling in three, five, 10 years? I doubt it. I'd put my money on the technology and monetization potential of flickr anyday.

Flickr not even as popular as Yahoo! Photos? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 22 Jun 2006 15:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.