Phanfare Inc. has announced a new online photo sharing service designed specifically to allow families to create online photo and movie sharing albums free of ads, branding, or storage limits.
Phanfare gives each subscriber their own subdomain, like yourname.phanfare.com for their own photo albums. Subscribers can also add video clips to their albums, and camera phones are supported as well: subscribers can email pictures directly to the account from a cell phone. The albums also support RSS feeds and have automatic backup and restore. Additionally, users can order prints and gifts from the album.
The service currently only supports PC users, with a Mac version scheduled for release this fall. Phanfare is priced at $54.95 a year or $6.95 a month. The service is available free of charge to schools and non-profit groups.
New Company Makes Online Photo Sharing Quicker, Easier, and More Family Friendly
Create your own photo website in minutes, free of ads, branding, or storage limits
Phanfare, Inc., announces that it has launched the first online photo and video sharing service designed specifically to allow families to easily create their own multimedia website free of ads, branding or storage limits.
At Phanfare (http://www.phanfare.com/), every subscriber receives a website with a unique URL (e.g., "http://yourname.phanfare.com/") for their online photo albums. Phanfare has video clip support so that subscribers can add movies to their albums. There is also camera-phone support to allow photos to be emailed to a Phanfare account from a cell phone.
Family-friendly features include large image display for easy viewing on the web, integration with popular online printing companies for ordering prints and gifts, and optional security features that let users choose if they wish to password protect their entire site and/or individual albums. Storage is permanent and unlimited, and the site features offsite backup with automatic restore so subscribers need not worry about ever losing their photos. RSS feeds from Phanfare albums let friends add album headlines to their RSS-enabled reader, such as MyYahoo! and MyMSN.
Founded by Andrew Erlichson and Mark Heinrich, Phanfare was created because, according to Erlichson, "I was looking for a private, permanent, unbranded online photo album suitable for chronicling the family and couldn't find one." Adds Heinrich, "We were also looking to drastically simplify the time and effort required to create and maintain our albums and to consolidate our entire workflow in the process."
In a recent survey of mothers conducted jointly by Big City Moms and Phanfare, 78% of respondents said they were interested in posting their photos to an online family website. Existing solutions offering free photo sharing fail to meet their needs, with 73% reporting that they objected to advertising appearing on their family photo website. "We are seeing an enormous interest in digital photography among our moms, but also a frustration in the difficulty of sharing photos online in a non-commercial way. Phanfare fits quite nicely with the modern family, allowing the family to maintain an elegant online visual history for friends and family to enjoy," says Risa Goldberg, founder of Big City Moms, an organization dedicated to providing mothers an outlet for activities in New York City.
Phanfare allows users to be more productive with their time. Users simply drag and drop their photos into Phanfare, and images are uploaded in the background while subscribers caption, edit, and create a story for their photos. The program is easy to use and PC compatible (with a Mac version scheduled for release in fall 2005). Users organize their photos into albums, which are universally accessible for viewing by family and friends. There's even an online slideshow feature. And unlike printing sites that hold original images captive, Phanfare lets subscribers' friends and family download full-size originals for home printing. Users worried about privacy also have the option of disabling this feature.
Phanfare is priced at $54.95/year or $6.95/month and is available free to schools and non-profit organizations.
With Phanfare, families can share family photos while saving valuable family time.
