by Sarah Fonseca

Created on: January 11, 2010

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to safely store dozens of your photos online for future reference, Photobucket is bound to be your best bet. Born out of the Web 2.0 boom of the early 2000s, Photobucket now boasts a large repertoire, including video hosting, scrapbook building, slideshow creation and private sharing. However, if you’re just in it for the photo storage, here’s what you’ll need to know.

CREATING AN ACCOUNT
As with many other social websites, a valid e-mail address is required to use the 500 MGs of free storage that Photobucket offers its users (while registering, you will also have the opportunity to sign up for paid accounts, including Unlimited and Paid Pro account options.) After a few short moments, you will be sent an activation e-mail.

UPLOADING A PHOTOGRAPH OR OTHER MEDIA FILE

If you’ve used Photobucket before, it’s important to notice that there have been a few small changes made to the site’s interface. It’s nothing to worry about. The main thing you need to notice while on the home page is the blue navigation toolbar at the top of the screen. Click the heading labeled ‘My Home’. After this page loads, you will see an ‘Upload images and videos’ tab near the center of the screen. There will be four different options available. If you want to upload photos from somewhere on your computer, simply browse your disk and select the individual photo, or entire folder if you’d like to upload multiple items at the same time (if you are using dial-up or a slower-speed Internet service, I’d recommend uploading a few photos individually until you can estimate how long the process will take.) Similarly, if you want to upload a photo from a URL, copy this from your web browser’s address bar and paste it into Photobucket. If you would like to upload a photo via email, copy the e-mail address which Photobucket gives you upon selecting that option. Attach photos to an e-mail, and send them in. Lastly, Photobucket gives you the option of sending media in from a cellular phone. To do this, follow the same steps as sending an e-mail attachment, only with the address for text messages.

At this point, you’re photos will have arrived at their intended destination. You will now be able to categorize them into albums and name them accordingly.

DISCLAIMER

One of the pros and cons of using Photobucket is that it does not allow the uploading of what it has deemed ‘sexually explicit or objectionable content’, which employees will determine upon their own descretion. Meaning, if you have a young, Internet-savvy child who is interested in beginning an online photo album, Photobucket will be the safest place. However, if you are an artist wanting to host some of your own art which features nudity or provocative concepts, a service like Flickr or Imageshack might be your best bet.

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