NBCOlympics Video Ads Estimated to Pull in Just $5.75 Million

Back in the latter half of June, I asked a fairly simple question concerning NBC’s Olympic foray on the Web: Will costs outweigh rewards? I imagined that the broadcaster might have to apply red tape to its cost-profit report. Perhaps a whole lot of it, even, particularly given the sheer volume of live and on-demand coverage promised to potential Web viewers. That being said, there’s a number now being floated by eMarketer concerning NBC’s in-video advertising that seems remarkably small. A $5.75 million kind of small.

A report in today’s Wall Street Journal by Emily Steel references eMarketer’s estimate on advertisement revenue to be tallied once all is played through and Beijing sends the last of its international guestlist back to their respective places of origin. The Internet researcher appears to lay some of the blame on NBC’s strict delivery deal with Microsoft and the Silverlight plugin requirement. A number of participants in a Mashable poll made known their aversion to the plugin, so eMarketer’s assessment could very well be accurate.

The Wall Street Journal notes that NBCOlympics.com users’ inability to view and share content across various external sites would limit the audience NBC might otherwise have attained. In fact, this clash of interests among NBC and Web users proved to be a notable issue, particularly in the area of YouTube, where a race to take down footage of Olympic games before they were broadcast in delayed-release on NBC stations drew the attention of the blogosphere as well as the mainstream press.

A sports advertising benchmark cited by the WSJ for the world of Web-streaming video was CBS’s ability to garner some $23 million in total revenue throughout the three-week-long NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament. Do watch for the key words “total revenue,” however. The presentation of in-video advertisements is only one part of the picture at NBCOlympics.com. (Albeit a sensibly important aspect of the entire portrait.)

The thing is, if CBS and NBC were to juxtapose viewerships, one would still see eMarketer’s premonition as somewhat unfortunate. CBS offered a figure of 4.8 million viewers. NBC, meanwhile, claimed to have nearly as much in its opening day, with 4.2m. And just this past Wednesday it issued a figure to the tune of 6.2m unique users.

We’ll certainly have to wait until events complete wrap up to offer a definitive take on the effect NBC Olympics has had. While I have voiced some negatives about NBC’s online delivery of events, I think my initial impression – that the deal will be seen as an aid for the company – will be realized in the weeks ahead. Though maybe just barely.

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The Slow Move to Mobile VoIP (Poll)

There are a number of topics that make the rounds in the tech blog world semi-regularly. One is VoIP. This has been the case throughout the summer, when names like Jajah, Gizmo, and Skype have either made news themselves or been associated with stories emerging from new developments. So what I’d like to consider now is where you currently see VoIP and where it is headed in terms of mobile use.

Earlier today, Om Malik of GigaOM fame followed up a story published Friday concerning 3G and its use by a minority of US and mobile phone users around the globe with a short exposé about Nokia and a disturbance in its implementation of VoIP/SIP software on a number of smartphones. Together, they make for interesting reading. And in my own observation of the market, I in turn feel its a good time to ask what one can make of the mobile VoIP scene. Is it healthy? Underrepresented? Underdeveloped? (Poll after the jump.)

Yes, there interesting items floating around the mobile atmosphere. The 3 Skypephone, which just had design refresh in the UK, is something to watch. Fring, a surprisingly adept software provider, gets increasingly attractive with each passing update. But broadly speaking, does VoIP have a chance to move off the desktop and provide the average user with reliable functionality that could effectively replace the traditional way mobile telephony has come to be over the past decade or so? And if so, how distant is such a paradigm shift?

As an advocate for efficiency and popular accessibility, I tend to take the role of the optimist. VoIP simply seems the logical next step. If Skype were to turn itself into the next [insert big wireless carrier name], so to speak (in terms of an elementary, pick-up-and-go user experience), that would be something to behold, for sure. Right now though, there are still some hurdles to push past. And I’m one to think it’ll be several years ‘til we see some momentous change, at least in the US. For one, infrastructural advancements haven’t kept pace with achievements on the end-user front. Second, the carrier wars don’t make for collective forward motion. The best one can really hope for is more heated competition to speed progress along.

That said, I put the question to you. What’s your take on the fate of mobile VoIP?

When will mobile VoIP go big?
( polls)

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Obama Spoils the SMS Surprise and Still Hits a Triple

I’m still waiting for my text message.

As the world now knows – courtesy of CNN’s Twitter feed, and now countless channels elsewhere – the junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, has chosen the veteran legislator from Delaware, Joe Biden, to accompany him on the ticket for the final months of the 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign. Speculation was palpable in the latter half of the week, Friday especially, but the guesswork has since been officially validated. And all it seemed to take was some well-financed, Big Media-driven investigative savvy.

I must say I’m not surprised that the cart came before the horse on this one. As if the Obama for America campaign could really keep it shut all the way to Saturday morning, when it planned to distribute via mass SMS and email the senator’s pick for VP. Logic doth prove such an experiment’s success unlikely, if not impossible. If you do a good amount of pestering and sort of a Sudoku-esque cancellation of the no-goes, eventually you’ll get something. Indeed, if you happen to be an outfit such as CNN, well, doors tend to open, willingly or unwillingly.

That being said, the promotional push being attempted was a smart one. The guy gets press for putting the people first, he gets said people to commit their digits, the giftwrap gets torn prematurely, and everyone’s abuzz. Voilà. The man knows how to market himself.

It really is interesting to see how technology has pervaded the political scene the last year or so. Far more than 2004 and 2000, for sure. At those moments, online interaction was brewing, but it was not booming. The most highlighted stories to come out of recent elections past were the funding efforts taking place on the Web. Now there’s thunder. Now there are the social networking and social media components that have taken stride in ways that seem increasingly critical to the candidates’ success – Barack Obama’s especially.

His campaign’s drive to lower the bar for access to information has gripped millions of people around the country. The most current example is of course the grand text-email login. He convinced a vast swath of the population to offer their cellular connections to his promotional engine, and it’s doubtful that he will do nothing but prosper further from it.

Yes, grumblings about deflated followers will naturally be amplified over the weekend and could even loiter around a bit longer. The bandwagon, after all, which was en route to what they thought would be a special celebration via their inboxes, was prematurely shown billboards screaming a secret they’d wished to know before the press could deliver its affirmative fill. Alas, the spell was broken, and quite a few folk will let that be known in the coming hours – including myself and Mashable’s commander in chief.

But soon enough Denver will be ablaze with talk of hope, unity, strength, and messianic worship of the Washingtonian kind, and the “botched” mobile messaging play will be a boo-boo on the heal. All in all, this whole spectacle makes for yet one more hefty bump for Obama. He gets press for thinking of you, lucky you; breaks your heart a bit; presumably does his rockstar thing in front of 80,000 or so disciples (with some opposing apples littered amongst the many); and continues on as he has done since June, likely none the worse for forgetting to send you 160 characters before letting slip to those gorgeous news people over there.

Technology is fantastic, is it not? No one can argue with that. Especially when it is used effectively. Funnily enough, Obama didn’t have to make good on that front to make his latest splash. What’s the saying? All’s fair in love and war?

(Images: BarackObama.com)

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Crystal Clear Voice Conversations with AirCell and Phweet

A while back, I chatted with AirCell SVP Tom Weigman about the in-flight Internet access system he was developing for several carriers making flights across America. It has since launched and is available to the public. Several folks have done some tests of the service and have generally given it positive reviews, the one thing that seems to be the big sticking point in everyone’s craws is the lack of ability to do live audio and video chats.

The in-flight system is designed to choke out any video or audio connections as it detects it, so as to conserve bandwidth for general usage on the flight.

VoIP expert, blogger and podcaster Andy Abramson wasn’t satisfied with that, though, and began tinkering with the system to see exactly what he could get away with:

Phweet. Yup, the unfunded brainchild of pals Stuart Henshall and Mr. Blog David Beckemeyer (who I consider one of the true great minds in VoIP) made it happen.

I invited Joanna, she replied and once I figured out how to get Phweet to answer (I had to use Safari, not Firefox) Joanna and I were having a lovely conversation while she was on an Aircell flight. I don’t mean a five second hi, hello. I mean, a real conversation, as she held her Lenovo UMPC up to her face. I even heard the announcement from the flight attendants as she was about to land.

The theory seems to be that because the connection takes place within a flash embed, which seem a bit of either an easy patch to make or an impossible one, depending on exactly what method Phweet is using. Whatever the method is, though, AirCell clearly isn’t scanning for it yet, though you can rest assured they will be looking to as soon as possible.

Based on the conversation I had with Tom when we talked on the podcast, there really is a limited amount of bandwidth to go around while the network continues to be built out nationwide. Using that as a basis for speculation, I’d imagine their restrictions are entirely related to limited bandwidth, and it’s very likely that these restrictions will eventually lift as bandwidth becomes more plentiful.

You can sit in on the conversation between Tom and I. The embed is available below, or you can download the MP3 file directly here.

Get the Mashable Conversations podcast here.
Add directly to iTunes here (or give us a rating).
Add directly to your Zune here.

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Obiden?

Joe Biden is Barack Obama’s running mate, as delivered by the high-tech means of a text message, and CNN’s Twitter feed.

What’s the tech crowd’s gut reaction? YES or NO on Obiden? The comment form is all yours.

Do We Really Need a National CTO?

Robert Scoble has become a cheerleader for Barack Obama’s concept of a national Chief Technology Officer. Though he claims that both Republicans and Democrats have asked for a CTO position to be created for the Whitehouse. Senator McCain has revealed his technology plan for America, and so far I haven’t found a part where he calls for a CTO yet.

I’ll leave it for our always colorful commenters to speculate as to why that is, but as for the idea of a CTO for our nation, I’m here to say that I’m not entirely comfortable with the idea it should exist at all.

“But Mark!” you exclaim. “You’re a tech evangelist! You’re a hacker! Most of all, you’re a geek! How can you possibly say this? You know more than any how badly our government mangles all the laws when it comes to technology. We need this.”

The truth is that I see a Chief Technology Officer for America as just another way to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt amongst the populace.  I’ll get into the specifics in just a minute, but let’s take a minute to define exactly what a CTO does. I’ll wait, while you go Google it.

…

Found a definitive answer yet?  I’m guessing not, since there isn’t one.

The Wikipedia, surprisingly, does have an amusing anecdote about the CTO title involving Bill Gates and his CTO. Bill and Nathan Myhrvold sat down and tried to come up a definition. Myhrvold answered, when asked:

Hell if I know. You know, when Bill [Gates] and I were discussing my taking this job, at one point he said, ‘Okay, what are the great examples of successful CTOs?’ After about five minutes we decided that, well, there must be some, but we didn’t have on the tip of our tongues exactly who was a great CTO, because many of the people who actually were great CTOs didn’t have that title, and at least some of the people who have that title arguably aren’t great at it. My job at Microsoft is to worry about technology in the future. If you want to have a great future you have to start thinking about it in the present, because when the future’s here you won’t have the time.

So we’re starting out with a nebulous position, and we’re putting it in charge of interpreting the nations’ technology issues, and hoping that the government won’t abuse the advice to expand their own power and use it to drum up votes.

Let’s Take a Trip Down Memory Lane
What has the Drug Czar done for America?  It’s another nebulous position that’s been around off and on since 1982, and has been a position largely reserved for alternatively drug scandals and public service messages.  Aside from eliminating government unions, the Department of Homeland Security has a visible director that ostensibly advises the president on what’s going on with the security of our infrastructure, and what color our terror alert is.

The office of FEMA was established on April Fool’s day 1979 by President Carter, and since then has just done a bang up job of performing the duties of assisting American citizens in times of great crisis.  I remember after Hurricane Wilma several years ago, FEMA was supposedly dispatched to provide disaster relief to the millions of South Floridians without electricity, running water, food or fuel. I spent about two weeks wandering around trying to get things together and never once ran into one of these mythical creatures. I hear they weren’t too helpful in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, either.

These are all organizations that supposedly have some pretty clear responsibilities, and their mandates are in their titles. If the richest technologist on the planet, Bill Gates, can’t define what a CTO is, does that bode well for the position in our government?

The CTO thing is a Really Popular Idea
I had the conversation last night with a couple of folks privately regarding their thoughts on the office of a national CTO. Given that I polled folks electronically, it isn’t surprising that most of them were for the idea.  One person, though, was staunchly against it.

“National CTO? RUN AWAY,” he said. “Run away as fast as you can. I can imagine the headlines now: ‘America’s CTO today issued a statement about the Russo-Georgian Cyberwar’ or American CTO warning – cell phones may cause brain cancer.”

Quite honestly, I think we’re better off with our government in the dark over this stuff. I think it’s worked to our advantage so far, anyway. Sure, once in a while one of our own takes one for the team. Kevin Mitnick, Napster, and occasionally Microsoft (depending on how much money the DOJ wants to write a check for that year). All in all, we come out ahead.

If we have a CTO advising the president, the congress and any other part of government that’s listening, we’ll end up with a government with a little bit of knowlege, which hopefully you’ll remember is a dangerous thing.

We’ll never have a President or a majority in Congress that uses Twitter, understands the inside jokes of 4chan, has installed Linux at least once in their life, or has coded so much as an HTML tag. It just won’t happen.  We might have an informed and savvy CTO telling them what’s going on in our world, but it’ll only give them more terminology for them to use incorrectly and demonstrate to us how out of touch they are.

And the Best We Can Come Up With is Dave Winer?
Do you think we’ll see the end of exploitation of Craigslist as a political punching bag anytime theirs a prostitution bust with a CTO?  Do you think we’ll see an end to Attorney Generals using pedophilia online as a way to scare the public and major corporations into playing ball?

No, of course not, they’ll just have more advanced terminology to play with.  Semantic web technology will be used to scare the electorate into outlawing the technology so we won’t have a Will Smith I, Robot situation on our hands. Better understanding of how trojans and worms are spread will only encourage congress to pass a law requiring mandatory keyloggers on every citizen’s computer.

If they get really altruistic and industrious, they might just get interested in protecting our privacy.  Of course, to them that’ll mean that every blogger will be required to obtain a license to operate a webserver so they can regulate how data is collected – data handling procedures that will tell you how you treat personal data entered in comments, cookies left by your ads, and disclosure of your sources.

I’m sorry if I’m sounding out of step with the crowd here, but I’d much rather have my government not worry their pretty little head about technology, if you please.  If the government gets too crazy in their technology laws, we’ll call our congressmen if there’s a problem.

In other words, Obama, don’t call us – we’ll call you.

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18 iPhone Drinking Apps to Get the Party Started

Blackberry, SideKick, Nokia users, put aside your differences: Let’s grab a beer! It could go all night, and of course, you’ll need to hang with me because I have the best drinking apps.

Here are 18 iPhone drinking apps that will keep track of how much you’re drinking, store drink recipes, help you figure out what to tip your bartender, and more.

Which have you tried out? Tell us more in the comments!

BeerCounter – You know how you start off the night knowing exactly how many beers you might intend to consume, and by the end of the night you’ve actually consumed the equivalent of a personal keg? This app is a free and simple beer counter. Every time you consume another drink, add one to the roster. No cheating, this app might be better kept in the hands of your designated driver.

PigUpLines – Can’t find the right words for that special girl in the tube top standing by the bar? Using PigUpLines will surely bring her to her knees. What? I mean, just listen to this one: “Excuse me, do you have any raisins? How about a date?” and how about “The only thing your eyes haven’t told me is your name.” This app is $1.99, but as classy as tickling a pink pig for a pick up line is, this app should be free. [iTunes link]

Drink Timer – Late night out on the town? Use this app when you start drinking so that the next morning you’ll know whether you’re still drunk or not. When the nice officer pulls you over the next morning, just wave your iPhone in his face and tell him, “but my iPhone says I’m sober!” This app is $0.99 but again, should probably be free. [iTunes link]

Bar Hopper – If you like BeerCounter and Drink Timer, then you could invest $1.99 to get both of them in this one app. It’ll also estimate your blood-alcohol level and has a button to call a taxi. The interface is easy to use, since everything you want to do is on one screen. [iTunes link]

R U Drunk – Can you pass these six sobriety tests? The six tests include standing on one leg, walking in a straight line, saying the alphabet backwards, a hand-eye coordination test, a “breathalizer” test, and a BAC calculator. The app is clearly labeled for entertainment purposes, but still, people are hating on it in the app store for controversial reasons. This was personally one of my favorites and I think it’s worth the 2.99. [iTunes link]

DrinkBuddy – Another app that will keep track of your drinking. The benefit to this one is that you can also keep track of everyone else’s drinking, so if you’re feeling like reminiscing with your old frat buddies, here’s the app for you. Also, unlike the other apps, this one comes pre-loaded with drinks so that you can spend less time keeping track and more time drinking. Sessions are saved in case you want to “wow” that special someone with your tolerance for alcohol; that always gets ‘em. Chug chug chug chug!

Beer Pad – For the beer aficionado, this app works as a beer journal to record your thoughts on the beers you drink. You can take notes, rate the beers you try, take a picture of the bottle for future reference and look up beers you’ve tried in the past. BeerPad will also remember everything you’ve said and use it as a reference guide for future. It’s $4.99 but if beer is your game, this is one cool app. [iTunes link]

Wine Pad – Same app as above, except for those who prefer wine. This app is also $4.99, but there’s a free, (supposedly) buggy version called Pad Lite that worked fine for me. Wine Log is a similar application. [iTunes link]

myColorWave – Spending time with other people who have had too much to drink? Wave this free app around to see how fast they fall on the floor. Shake it or wave it, and the screen changes colors. Tap it or swipe it, the screen keeps changing colors. Tap or wave it faster, or jump up and down, and it changes color even faster! [iTunes link]

Wooo Button – You know how whenever you have a little too much to drink, everything is “woooooo” worthy? Well, with this app you can press a simple button and it will yell an emphatic “wooooooo” for you. Is it faster and more productive to just yell “woooo” on your own? Sure. But it’s free so what the heck. [iTunes link]

TipStar – When the night is over don’t forget to tip your bartender! This is one of the few tipping apps that are still free on the app store, but it performs its basic function: Calculating your tip. [iTunes Store]

Mix your own drinks with some cocktail apps

Throwing your own party? Hosting an after party following your local PodCamp? There are a few cocktail mixing apps for the iPhone to make you the bartender of the night. People will be Twittering about your Mojito’s for days to come. Or, the next time the bartender doesn’t know your favorite drink, just bring it up and give them the recipe.

Cocktails (free) – Ehm, if you speak German, this app will be perfect for you! Otherwise, you’re probably going to have to pay at least $0.99 cents for a drink app. [iTunes link]

iBartender ($0.99) – A decent bartending app, you can find all of the popular drinks and email them to others if that’s your agenda. Can’t decide what to make? Just shake the app and it will pick one for you. [iTunes link]

PLBartender ($0.99) – If you’re cool with browsing for your drinks by name instead of by ingredient, this app will work. Like some of the other apps, you can edit recipes to your liking, but reviews at the iTunes app store recommend splurging on the Drinks app (below). [iTunes link]

Drinks ($3.99) – This is a fantastic app to find drinks that you want to make. You can search by drink name or by the ingredients that you have (a big plus). You can even edit existing mixes to your liking and add your own. When you’re done, you can review the drink and write notes about it. Great ratings in the app store, which I wholeheartedly agree with. [iTunes link]

Cocktails ($4.99) – An OK app that doesn’t require Internet access to use. No customization like the Drinks app and lacks more modern drinks (probably due to the fact that the user base can’t add recipes). [iTunes link]

And for our underage friends:

Pour1Out – Underage and without a fake ID? Drink a virtual 40 with 40cozy.com’s app. Tip it and the 40 pours out. Wrap it in a paper bag and wear some gold bling-bling; your friends will never know the difference. [iTunes link]

Or you could pay $2.99 for a fake glass of beer with iBeer, but that seems silly. There used to be a free app called iPint but along with (what feels like) every other free app on the app store, it’s no longer available.

[Image credit: Glenn Harper [Attribution])

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Google Helps You Find Yourself (And Other Stuff Too)

Google announced today that it has launched the Gears Geolocation API for mobile and desktop browsers, which will allow website owners to develop location-based services for their sites and help you find points of interest, nearby locations, and countless other information about your general area.

According to Google, the API can “determine your location using nearby cell phone towers or GPS for your mobile device or your computer’s IP address for your laptop. Google provides this service for free to both developers and users.”

Right now though, the Geolocation API will only work on IE Mobile and Internet Explorer and Firefox on the desktop, but Google did promise that it’s “working hard to bring Gears to more mobile platforms, such as Android and others.”  Let’s hope it works a bit harder.

Along with the announcement, Google included two descriptions of sites already employing the Geolocation API.  One such site, Rummble, lets users recommend places to visit in their location and will let friends make personalized recommendations as well.  With the help of Gears, users will be able to update their location and find the “Rummbles” that others have made in that area.

Google didn’t say how many sites would employ its new solution, but it has me thinking of all the ways it can be implemented.  Will sites use it as just another POI implementation or will it do much more than that?  Will it provide you with the crutch you need to get back on track when you’re trying to find your favorite restaurant?

At this point, there’s no way to tell.  But if past Google implementations are any indication of what may be in store for Geolocation API, big things might happen.

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EasyAutoSales Provides Free Vehicle Listings (The Startup Review)

Editor’s Note: This post is part of an ongoing series at Mashable – The Startup Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems Startup Essentials. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

STARTUP DETAILS:

Company Name: EasyAutoSales

20-word Description: EasyAutoSales makes selling cars online easy for both dealerships and private sellers.

CEO’s Pitch: The online automotive classifieds business is stale and it needs to be updated. As Internet technologies get better and distribution costs get cheaper, we do not feel it is fair or necessary to charge dealers outrageous monthly fees to simply post new and used cars on the Web. This is why our new and used cars listing services are free. Our main features include:

– Free listings with support for unlimited high quality photos and video.
– Basic inventory management for small dealerships.
– Easy inventory imports for mid sized dealers or large auto groups.
– Automatic inventory export to AOL Autos, MySpace, Walmart.com and more!
– (Coming soon) Social/peer online marketing features.

Mashable’s Take: There is ample proof that selling cars online, in various venues of large dimensions – eBay, Edmunds, AutoTrader, Yahoo Autos, CarOcean etc. – is far less expensive than doing the same in more tangible ways, such as billboards and newspaper advertisements and so forth. But if you’re a car dealer or a private owner looking for even less of a financial hit when posting information on one or more vehicles for sale, EasyAutoSales, based in Atlanta, GA, may be the place to go. Free listings (ad-supported), after all, are hard to beat.

The way EasyAutoSales functions is basic enough. Sellers post various bits of data on specific cars, including VIN number, odometer reading and the like. The standard stuff, more or less. Other details can be written in full if desired. Buyers who then find listings, either at the EasyAutoSales home site or external places it publishes to, can contact sellers via email, phone, or a public comment/chat system. Visitors can also flag items or sellers if something or somebody is deemed misleading.

Design-wise, EasyAutoSales is neither better nor worse than its competitors. It’s relatively easy to navigate. It offers a good set of search options; the local filter perhaps being the most necessary and sensible implementation of all. The photo slideshow is a nice touch to an otherwise static presentation. It is effective for sellers for the fact that so many photos can be added, and buyers naturally can benefit from this. Really, the only seeming downside is its selection of distribution channels.

Auto sellers tend to consider the biggest sites on the Web, in order that they target the largest audiences possible. And while EasyAutoSales covers more than a half-dozen unique locations other than its own, they don’t rank among the top destinations searched. The current list of sites available to sellers on EasyAutoSales includes: AOL Autos, Local.com, Walmart.com/Oodle, MyRide, Vast, Overstock Cars, Google Base, and Military.com.

That being said, listings are free, so there’s little or no loss to be had in using EasyAutoSales. And the gain could well be a sale.

Sponsored By: Sun Startup Essentials

EasyAutoSales.com company profile provided by TradeVibes

Picnik Updates its “Basket” with Batch Uploads and More

While Flickr was busy working on its new slide show features, another growing photo-sharing site, Picnik, was busy adding some new features of its own. All users will be able to preview the new features, while Premium account holders will get unlimited access. The new “Picnik Basket” gives premium users the option of batch uploading up to 100 photos at once, which is always a relief when you’re adding photos to a media-sharing site and was unsurprisingly users’ most requested feature.

Other new options for Picnik Basket include photo layering and photo collage tools, which grant users more ways in which to display their images. These two effects for photo album viewing introduce more creative ways that users can show off a group of photos. Photo layering lets you drag and drop multiple photos on a single work surface, and then blend them together for a new effect. Premium account holders will have unlimited capabilities with this option while free users can work with up to 5 images. The photo collage tool lets users customize borders, control the aspect ratio of photos, and more. Free users can try this out with up to 36 images, while Premium account holders get free reign.

Since emerging onto the photo-sharing scene, Picnik has focused on the quality of its editor more than anything else, and the peripheral features came later. We’ve seen a lot of development on the added feature side of Picnik in recent months, as the company continues to reach out to a wider user base through the promotion of its product, direct integration with other sites and services like MySpace and Box.net, as well as free options for all users and additional benefits for premium users.

With services like Photobucket having a stronghold on photo effects, and ongoing merging of several other photo-sharing services with third-party sites (i.e. Photobucket and Scrapblog’s recent partnership), the competition is heightened and the necessity for inclusive creative, sharing and distributive features is very much reflected in Picnik’s strategy thus far.

Picnik company profile provided by TradeVibes

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