3. Pick a Site

By now, you should have a rough idea of the type of site you want to
start with. Now you need to narrow down the thousands of options to a
specific site. Below are two tables comparing a few sites in each of
the main solution types. (Note: These sites are fiercely competitive so
the information here, while accurate at the time of publication, is
likely to change and should only be used as a guide for comparison
purposes.) 

This table compares how well some specific sites support
various
uses.

This second table includes comparison of a few key features
and restrictions as well as cost. For setup complexity and
upload effort keep in mind that similar services will vary greatly.
There will
also be specific restrictions not covered here, so read their terms and
rates carefully before committing.

* has additional upgrade options
+ has periodic purchase requirement
^ Note: Apple is currently changing .Mac to MobileMe – some terms may
change

Here are a few more things to keep in mind when picking a site. How
easy or difficult will it be for people to access (do they need special
logins, do images load slowly)? Will I ever lose my photos (what
happens if my account does not stay active)? What happens if I exceed
the maximum storage (will photos automatically be deleted or just
disappear from view)? Can I control the quality of image available to
strangers (but allow some people to print from high resolution)?

Summary

It should be really easy for us to look at the information we found
about online photo sites and recommend WinkFlash to almost everyone-
how can you beat a free, unlimited site that supports almost every use
and offers almost every feature? And yet, we have very specific uses
for our online photos, so instead we use a combination of
Flickr and
Menalto Gallery.  And while there isn’t much risk in
trying a
free site out to see if you like it, it can be really disappointing to
put hours and hours into arranging and captioning, only to decide the
site doesn’t quite do what you would like. That’s why it just makes
sense to put some thought into your needs before picking a method and
site for putting your photos online.

Resources

• Toptenreviews.com has two very
  useful reviews, one comparing the more common photo printing sites and another
  for photo sharing sites.
• Finding pricing for some of these sites was a real
  challenge. For
  some it’s in About Us, some bury it in a FAQ on the Help page, and
  others put it right into those unreadable service agreements. The .Mac
  service pricing was quite tricky to find. Flickr pricing
  details are also quite deeply buried in the FAQ which you can’t even
  reach from the homepage. 
• PhotoLightning
  is a well liked software for managing photos and can be used like Picasa
  to post photos to Blogger and other sites.
• The DMOZ Open Directory Project has a relatively current
  list of dozens of photosharing sites if you still haven’t found one
  that suits you.