Newly unveiled by Nikon, My PictureTown is similar to Google’s Picasa, with a few differences. You can upload and download your pictures, and share then via email, or via Flickr.
To upload pictures, hit the ‘Upload’ button. This allows you to choose ‘Quick Upload’, which requires you to install a browser plugin (compatible with Windows XP Internet Explorer 6+, Windows XP Mozilla Firefox, and Mac OS Safari), or use the ‘Single Selection Upload’, which allows you to browse for, and upload up to 10 files, and add them to an Album or add tags. Only JPEG and MOV files are supported.
You can share your pictures too. You can enter a bunch of email addresses, a message, and the people you’ve selected get an email invite to see a slideshow with the images in the album you’ve selected. Clicking on the link, the visitors are taken to the slideshow page (seen above), but when they hit the play button, they’re taken to a black popup screen where your images are played across the screen to (unchangable) piano accompaniment.
You can also share your photos to Flickr. After you’ve authorised your account on Flickr with your username and password, you can upload your photos right from My PictureTown (to upload to Flikr, you need to have a valid Flickr or Yahoo ID account).
You can also rotate your pictures, organise them into albums, and of course delete photos you don’t want. It also has drag and drop capability to make organising simpler.
You can choose to have a free account with 2GB of storage (Twice more than Google’s Picasa, but Flickr is unlimited), or a Gold account, with 20GB (Free until March 1st, 2008). This service is apparently for US and Japanese citizens only, and you can choose via two radio buttons in the signup process.
If you own a Nikon COOLPIX S50c or S51, you can register to the service via your Wi-Fi camera.
Final Word: A great service for people who like to upload and share their pictures, but I can’t get past the feeling that this is a slightly modified Flickr. I recommend this for those who like to share their photos with family and friends, but not with the world.
