Pictures and text are visible on virtual pages, and these flip as if they were part of traditional, bound books.  Kristen Nicole notes, "There are group collaboration tools mixed in there, so multiple people can contribute to a single collection of images that focus on a particular event or place, or point in time."  User profiles act as an additional way for creators to reach out, and then comments and a 5-star rating system allow the community to give feedback on what it’s seen.

As you might suspect, Shutterfly Gallery doesn’t look ready to lead an artistic revolution – most of the scrapbooks fall along the lines of "we’re so in love" or "my cat is so cute" subjects.  Still, Shutterfly users seem to have picked up on idea quickly, and some of the creations are much better than others.

Also, Shutterfly Gallery isn’t bound to the main Shutterfly site.  A press release reveals, "To expand sharing beyond Shutterfly.com, photo books posted to the Shutterfly Gallery can also be embedded into a personal webpage or blog."

If anyone’s expecting Shutterfly to get a flood of new users out of this development, they’re liable to be disappointed.  A trickle’s not impossible, though, and existing users might grow a little more loyal.

Nexo describes itself as an "on-line sharing and group services company," and according to an official release, was sold for "less than $15 million."  Hurray for vague writing, huh?

Nexo’s technology should enhance Shutterfly’s photo-sharing abilities, however, and will, if everything goes as planned, impress current users and convince more people to join the fun.  We’re not calling the Nexo acquisition a miracle cure – relevant Google results are rare, and the company doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry – but this is Shutterfly’s line of thought.

Jeffrey Housenbold, the president and CEO of Shutterfly, stated, "The acquisition of Nexo accelerates our next-generation sharing platform and enhances Shutterfly’s market leading position and consumer value proposition."  Also, "Nexo’s talented development team has deep experience with Web 2.0 technologies and services."

The stock market should open in a few more minutes, so we’ll soon see if investors agree with that assessment.
 

R.I.P. Yahoo Photos

A recent post on Yahoo Anecdotal suggests that users take their photos to Flickr before September 20th, and Tim Anderson explains, “The next time you log in to Yahoo! Photos, you’ll see your options for moving your entire collection with just one click.”

Users who choose to accept that set of options may soon feel right at home again, as Anderson also notes, “Many of creative folks behind Yahoo! Photos are heading over to the Flickr team, giving us even more ammo for future innovation.”

But, to its credit, Yahoo isn’t trying to force anyone into taking that path; in addition to giving over three months’ notice, the company has presented users with several alternatives.  “[I]n case Flickr isn’t for you (no hard feelings), we’re also providing easy ways to move your photos to other services (including Shutterfly, Kodak Gallery, Snapfish or Photobucket), download them, or get them on an archive CD,” writes Anderson.

That’s nice, and a bit funny, too – Anderson has to be one of the most agreeable corporate reps I’ve ever come across (and I use the term “rep” loosely, as Anderson likely isn’t a fulltime PR guy).  News Blog’s Stephen Shankland advises people to take advantage of this flexibility.  “Look at the options carefully before you switch,” he suggests.  “Some are offering perks such as free prints, and others don’t support some Yahoo Photos features such as tags.”

Shankland then adds, “Conspicuously missing from the migration list is Picasa, the photo-sharing site run by Yahoo archrival Google,” but, well, you can’t honestly have expected Yahoo to be that cooperative.

As Yahoo Photos goes to its grave, users should be able to rest easy (no pun intended) that getting over it won’t be too hard.

According to MarketWatch, Shutterfly plans to raise up to $92 million from the IPO, trading on the Nasdaq under the symbol SFLY.

A dotcom bust surviver, Shutterfly began as an Internet photo-printing service. The company expanded its services to include photo sharing as well, attracting 4.1 million visitors in May.

According to Tom Taulli at bloggingstocks.com, the company’s revenues showed a sharp spike between 2003 and 2005, more doubling from $31.3 million in annual revenue to $83.9 million.

“Up until now, online photo companies have been selling out to major companies, like Yahoo! (bought Flickr) and Google (bought Picasa). In other words, Shutterfly faces intense competition,” wrote Taulli.

The company says Goldman, Sachs & Co. will serve as sole book-running manager for the offering, with J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. acting as joint-lead manager, and Piper Jaffray & Co. and Jefferies &

Company, Inc. acting as co-managers.

“Amazon is looking forward to working with Shutterfly,” said Glenn Cunningham, Vice President of Amazon’s Electronics store. “Our customers have come to expect a superior shopping experience from Amazon.com and we believe, with the addition of Shutterfly’s digital photography products and services, this will serve to enhance their shopping experience with us.”

-Professionally developed photographs ranging in sizes from wallets to 20×30 large-formats

-Design-it-yourself photo cards, calendars, photo books and photo gifts, including mugs, t-shirts, and a variety of other personalized products, that can be shipped directly to friends and family all over the world

-Free online picture sharing including sharing a single album at a time and creating up to two free “Collections,” a personal address for storing and sharing an unlimited number of photo albums

-Easy-to-use image organization and uploading tools

-Free, unlimited online image storage

-Free image editing tools (i.e. cropping, red-eye removal, enhancing color effects and adding borders)

“We are very excited to welcome Amazon’s tens of millions of shoppers into Shutterfly’s community of users and to introduce them to all that they can accomplish with their digital images, online,” said Jeffrey Housenbold, President & CEO of Shutterfly. “Together, Amazon and Shutterfly will enable consumers to easily turn their precious memories into distinctive photographs and gifts.”

This will be a nice feature for Amazon users. This allows them to get even more of what they want and not have to fool with running all over town.

John Stith is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.