Making Photo And Video Sharing A Breeze

Chances are, you or a relative received a digital or video camera this holiday season. Yet for all but the seasoned shutterbug, there remains a problem: After capturing all those great memories, how do you share them?

Rather than letting them languish, you can take advantage of free online services that let you store and present your digital adventures. It's certainly a better option than e-mailing huge video files or "fat" photos that can clog recipients' in-boxes. But with so many services to choose from, there are many factors to consider:

• Save your money-Many of today's photo- and video-sharing Web sites are free. Look for a free site that is easy to join and use. Find out storage and retrieval restrictions.

• Show and tell-Discussing photos and videos often brings families closer and keeps people in touch. Find a site that can notify everyone in your "social network" when new photos or videos are being shared and also when people comment on them. Being notified of those comments is what facilitates discussions. Your social network includes your friends, family, and friends of friends-everyone you know and love. When the people you care about are regularly notified of each other's new photos, videos and comments, fun, meaningful discussions are sure to follow.

• Focus on convenience-Rather than use one site to share photos and another to share videos, consider sites that support both, plus other kinds of content as well. The site should facilitate communication around your content and provide privacy. Additionally, look for services that let people order prints of their favorite photos.

• Know your audience-Posting digital content on public sites isn't the best option if privacy is important. Consider sites that offer a place to share digital memories (weddings, baby's first steps, family picnics) with a "virtual velvet rope" that restricts entry. For example, Multiply.com is a site that lets users share content with specific individuals, larger audiences such as your family or co-workers or even your entire social network. You'll have peace of mind specifying who gets to see your digital collections, while barring strangers from gaining entry.

By taking these factors into consideration, you'll have a better understanding of exactly what online service best suits your needs. Soon, you'll be on your way to sharing your favorite digital collections and communicating with friends and family in a few easy clicks.

There are many free photo- and video-sharing sites, so it's important to find the one that has the best features for you. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

A New Way To Easily Share Your Home Movies

Thanks to a clever breakthrough, your old home movies now have a new home. A service has been designed to provide friends and families scattered across the country with an easy way to share their home videos, by sending them directly to the television.

How It Works

It works like this: Rather than burning and mailing DVDs or viewing videos on a computer, friends and family will now be able to set up their own private channel to send home videos directly to a TiVo subscriber's TV set.

TiVo has partnered with One True Media, an online service that helps people turn their video and photos into stylish digital video montages, to create a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for creating these videos and sharing them with whomever he or she chooses.

After uploading their home movies and photos to One True Media, consumers can quickly make a video montage complete with soundtrack and special effects. Next, they will receive a personal TiVo channel code that they can distribute to other TiVo subscribers. With a few clicks of their TiVo remote, friends and family can get a Season Pass recording that automatically delivers all current and future home movies from the video creator.

Videos will be displayed in TiVo subscribers' Now Playing List-the same location where they access all of their favorite television recordings.

A Nice Way To Share Memories

To share home movies or slide shows privately, the video creator gives his personal TiVo channel code to friends and family. Only people with the unique personal code can see the published channel. Thus, creators can share their videos with friends and family, while ensuring that their most treasured memories are not publicly available. To learn more, visit tivo.com/ homemovies.

Your Home Movie On TV-Home movies can now be sent over the Internet directly to television sets. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

How Social Networks Help

Social networking. It has become a cultural phenomenon that almost everyone seems to be hooked into it. Cyberspace used to be a world good enough for computer geeks, but everyone now seems to enjoy getting to know people and sharing information with them via the Internet.

What made social networking boom? Why do people from all walks of life enjoy doing it? What makes one social networking site different from the hundreds of others?

Social networking started with the purpose of merely providing accessibility to people whom users havent kept in touch with for so long. A decade ago, social networking was limited to posting bulletin and sharing ones contact details to a certain group of people.

Social networks that emerged in later years have become more versatile in use. Aside from collecting as many friends as you can through online connectivity, social networking allows you to share thoughts and experiences.

Social networking does not only exist in mainstream social networking sites like MySpace and Friendster. Blogging sites like WordPad and Movable Type also allow users to add other contacts that can access their blog posts.

You can also share your hobbies and interests through social networking. Photosharing sites like Flickr and Photobucket allows members to download photos or images and share them with other users in the network.

If you are into music or videos, you can compile your digital files in your site and share it with those who like the same kind of stuff. YouTube is perhaps the most popular video-sharing site in which you can connect to other YouTube members who share your interest. You can also establish your social network through P2P software like Bearshare, which allows direct, software-based file-sharing among its members.

If you want to recommend certain website contents to other online users, you can make use of social bookmarking sites like Digg and del.icio.us. These websites usually allow you to categorize and other users to discuss issues right on the page where you have posted your site recommendation.

There are websites that are even much versatile in function. Aside from letting you add as many contacts as you want, mainstream social networking sites can cater to both your blogging and file-sharing needs. Multiply, for example, allows you to store and share blogs, music, videos, reviews, event schedules, links, and even recipes to other users. Its everything rolled into one.

Since social networks allow you to share information through the Internet, they are often used as a medium to promote ones business over the Internet. There are social networking sites that allow interaction among professionals and experts, so joining these sites can be an advantage on your part if you are running a business.

Some social networks are beginning to turn into a mere fad. Others are already facing their downfall. But in one way or another, social networking sites are bound to become an integral part of online life in the indefinite future. Matthew is the owner of TheWebReviewer: Online Money Making Opportunities, and NetWebVideo: Home Based Business Free Membership. Matt currently lives in Southern California and is married with two children and has been an online marketer since 2006. Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com