Through the pact, the Ask.com search box is now prominently displayed across Photobucket.com, driving millions of additional Ask.com search queries and exposing the Ask.com brand to Photobucket’s 44 million monthly unique users worldwide.

The agreement also includes the syndication of sponsored listings and display advertising to Photobucket.

No related posts.

Smugmug

Smugmug is a leader in the Flickr alternatives space. Great looks are combined with good traffic and a strong community to deliver a viable and attractive alternative. The one catch though: Smugmug is a paid service with only a free trial period, a speedhump for the majority of Flickr users on a free account, but premium Flickr users with pro accounts won’t mind paying $39.95/ yr for unlimited uploads and storage. Smugmug also offers video hosting for $59.95/ yr, although with a huge range of free options in the video space I don’t immediately see the appeal.

Zooomr

Zooomr was once the Flickr in waiting, but after uptime issues last year the site now calls itself a “social utility” that offers a Twitter style short message service. Founder Kristopher Tate has also been focusing on the Japanese market. Worth consideration as the traffic is reasonable and the user base fairly active.

Photobucket

Before you ask, the answer is yes, Photobucket. The MySpace (FIM) owned Photobucket has matured past its roots as a photo uploading site for social network profiles and is now a fully fledged photo sharing site with its own community. The selling point: stable, strong ownership means that you’ll never lose your photos. The downside: it’s still as ugly as sin. Great for 12 year olds with ADHD, bad for anyone older than 25 with 20/20 vision.

Picasa Web Albums

Google has long lagged in photo sharing, but more and more lately images hosted on Picasa Web Albums keep popping up. Focused on Google’s excellent Picasa photo editing tool, Google offers functional and easy to use photo hosting that will never go down. For Mac users there is a Picasa photo uploader which looks nearly identical to the Flickr equivalent, so the switch isn’t that big. My guess is that Picasa Web Albums is the next big service in photo sharing, although it won’t appeal to serious photographers. Also like most things Google, it’s not exactly pretty either.

Dot Mac/ Mobile Me

Apple’s Dot Mac (soon to be Mobile Me) service isn’t cheap, but the built in support for photo galleries within iPhoto creates seriously good looking photo galleries. The downside is a complete lack of social sharing or social anything really, it’s great looking photos and nothing else. I personally use this service for private galleries, or to be more precise photos my 5 year old son has taken that I want to share only with family and close friends.

23

23 is the smallest service we’ve put on this list, but it stands out as being a simple, well designed, attractive photo sharing site with a active community. The risk with smaller services is that they might not go the distance, however everything feels right about this site.

I’m not about to cancel my Flickr membership, but already I know I’m not alone in considering other services, so I hope the list helps. If there are any services not included that you’d recommend, leave a comment below, and also let us know why you use them.

Related posts:

1. Google Bids Farewell To Hello
2. Yahoo buying Tumblr…or maybe not
3. The new Flickr, even the change embraces minimalism

The plan will let MySpace users have their profile data dynamically shared with pages on Twitter, Yahoo, Photobucket, and eBay.

“The walls around the garden are coming down,” MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe said in a statement today.

“We…are pioneering a new way for the global community to integrate their social experiences web-wide.”

An soon-to-be-introduced interface will let users choose from sharing profile information, photos, videos, and friend networks with any of the partnering sites.

Related posts:

1. Facebook Follows Suit With Data Sharing
2. Massive 30% Myspace Layoffs – Heightened Security at MySpace HQ
3. Facebook Up, But MySpace Still Dominates