THING 5--Flickr

Fun Fun Fun as you see from previous posts. I dove right in and found out how to do lots of stuff before I actually read any instructions. I set up an account and made it private for now. I'll make public individual photos as needed.

I've used Photobucket as an on-line picture host for years and so that helped me know what to look for when up-loading. Flickr and Photobucket are different in various ways. Both allow you to share your photos with others if you want or keep them private. Flickr allows you more options for uploading in different ways, including sending a picture from your cell phone, and more options for organizing your photos. You can send a picture to your cell phone from Photobucket, however. When you link a photo to another place such as a bulletin board, the Flickr picture becomes a link you can click on to go to Flickr. Photobucket just allows your picture to be seen on the other site. That can be preferable.

You can search both sites using tags. There is no map feature on Photobucket, but I don't have a big need for that, though. Photobucket allows you to get fancier in making slideshows and saving them. I don't see anything that matches Flickr's community of Groups, however. Flickr has more functionality as a social networking site. The ability for friends to make notes directly on the pictures that pop up when you mouse over is cool. But I was disappointed that the Flickr "Make Stuff" section was all third-party pay sites. You can buy various stuff with your picture on it from Photobucket, too, and prints, but it's more obvious you have to purchase the items.

Photobucket allows you to upload short video clips and gives you a tool to do some simple editing. Flickr does not provide for videos. There is also slightly more photo editing options in Photobucket.

I think that Flickr is glossier and sexier overall, and I was impressed by the high quality of the pictures I came across, but I like the functionality of Photobucket for hosting images to post to bulletin boards.

And there's a link to Meez on Photobucket so you can make your own 3-D avatar . (More on that later.)

I haven't played with all the Flickr third-party fun sites yet though. There's lots there to amuse by the looks of it. I did make my name in Flickr letters but was disappointed that I couldn't save it but could only link to it.