How to use photos with Blogger: Part 3

Hello PB friends! Here’s another post in my series on using photos (here and here). I’ll look at some more goodies such as Photobucket, Picasa Web Albums, Pinterest, Polyvore, ShopStyle, Stumbleupon, vi.sualize.us and We ♥ it. These are a mix of image hosting (they store your digital photos on their servers) and photo sharing (they publish and distribute digital photos online) and discovery engines which find the best on the internet, personalised to each user’s taste. So, let’s go! First up are two really useful ones which are similar to Flickr.

Photobucket

Photobucket is an image hosting site with 500 MB free storage but you can upgrade to a paid Pro account which allows unlimited storage. It also has a large collection of photos you can download, a photo editor and scrapbook and slideshow builders which might interest some of you. So far, I have only used it to store my blog banner and my post signature but I’ve found it easy to use.

Picasa Web Albums

Picasa Web Albums is both an image hosting and a photo sharing website, similar to Flickr. It is owned by Google. Google in turn also owns Blogger so that’s why all photos you use in your Blogger posts are also stored in your Picasa Web Albums account. I bet some of you didn’t even realise you had one!

My account contains two albums, one for all the photos I’ve used on my blog and another for the profile photos I’ve used on Blogger. The first one has hundreds of photos, often in multiples. I tried deleting some of the extra versions of photos but then discovered I had deleted the ones actually used in my posts, thus creating broken links to some photos. I had to edit those posts and reinsert the photos. So beware!

You are allowed 1 GB of free storage per Picasa Web Albums account. Then you can purchase additional storage. The lovely Katrina Chambers has done some recent helpful posts on the relationship between your Picasa Web Albums photos and your Blogger account here and here. You need to know this information as at some point, you will approach your free storage limit and the speed at which photos load on your blog will deteriorate.

To find out how much of your limit you have already used, go to your Blogger blog homepage and click on ‘Design’, then ‘My Account’ and then ‘Picasa Web Albums’. At the bottom of the page, you will see your figure. This is what mine looks like after only 13 weeks of blogging. Hmm, I’ll have to keep an eye on that!

And now this is where the real fun starts!

Pinterest

Have any of you been entranced by Pinterest like I have? It’s a new social bookmarking site. It advertises itself as ‘a virtual pinboard - a place where you can post collections of things you love and ‘follow’ collections created by people with great taste’. 

If you double click on the badge, you’ll then be connected to the blogger’s Pinterest pinboards where you’ll discover a lot more about their tastes and interests.

I could spend hours on Pinterest. Seriously. There are so many gorgeous images there to nab and add to my pinboards. It’s easy to join. You’ll love it! It’s sleek and pretty. They’re still having teething problems with the layout and the categorising of photos but they are working on them. The source URL address attaches to your photo ‘pins’ to help with attribution if you use the photos on your blog.

The easiest way to use Pinterest is to have the bookmarklet saved on your ‘Favourites toolbar’. There are clear instructions showing you what to do. However, they’re a small set-up and are still working on improving the functionality with Internet Explorer. I have IE8 and found I couldn’t add the bookmarklet as suggested. They e-mailed me the following information:

Here’s a snapshot of my ‘Bathing’ pinboard.

You have complete freedom in naming and collating your pinboards. Here’s a snapshot of some of mine. 

Are you getting the idea? 

Polyvore

This site is positively swoon-worthy for style-lovers and fashion followers. It allows users to create digital collages of their favourite clothes, accessories and homewares and set fashion trends. You can join groups, see the ‘sets’ curated by group members and submit your own for others to see and comment upon. You are able to move your cursor over the ‘set’ and the details of each individual item pop up, showing the name of the product, how much it costs and similar items by the same manufacturer. You can save any photo to your account.

So far, I have only added a number of items to my account. I use Polyvore when I spot something I’d like to buy. Here’s a snapshot of some of my wishlist pretties.

The next stage is to create a ‘set’ using my items. Here is a 'set' from the ‘French feeling’ group I’ve subscribed to.

ShopStyle

This little beauty is also heaven for the fashion and style-lovers. It describes itself as ‘the online equivalent of browsing the aisles of the world's most fabulous store’. It brings together the most fashionable stores and the best brands allowing users to cross-shop hundreds of thousands of apparel, home decorating and kids products – all in one place. You can search the most stylish stores at once – by designer, brand, store, sale items, price point and colour.

It’s a similar setup to Polyvore – instead of ‘sets’, you create ‘stylebooks’. I haven’t had the time yet but you can also create ‘looks’ using your items. Here’s a ‘look’ of one of the women I have as my ‘friend’.

You can create ‘wishlists’. You can find, and follow, people with similar taste. Who knows, they might even end up following you if they like what they see! I could also spent hours on this site. It’s so intuitive and easy to navigate. It pops you on a magic carpet ride which takes you all over the world, sourcing your favourite goodies from the best shops. Here’s a snapshot of some of the navy bags I have my eye on.

When I move my cursor over the first bag, this screen pops up.

Magic, don’t you think? There are also several ShopStyle widgets you could use for your blog if you’d like.

StumbleUpon

Are many of you stumblers? I tried for a while but found it was a tremendous time-waster and quite dissatisfying as it was so endless and infinite. I have heard some people just rave about it. According to the website, ‘StumbleUpon uses [thumb up] and [thumb down] ratings to form collaborative opinions on website quality. When you stumble, you will only see pages that friends and like-minded stumblers have recommended’. You install the StumbleUpon toolbar so that whatever website you’re on, you can click on whether you like or dislike it. Your ratings are collated so that the more you rate sites, the better StumbleUpon can tailor the sites it shows to you to suit your taste.

vi.sualize.us 

I am a huge fan of this one. It’s a social bookmarking site like Pinterest and We ♥ it but I find it often works on particular pages when those two don’t, for whatever technical reasons. I use this mostly when I’m combing through my favourite blogs on Google Reader each morning. I scroll through the posts until I find a photo I love. Then I double left click on the blog itself and then once I’m there, click on the vi.sualize.us bookmarklet saved up on my favourites toolbar. This screen then opens up.

I click on the photo and this screen pops up.

I enter the photo’s details (making sure to correctly indicate the source) and then click on ‘Add picture’ to save it to my account. The tags added help organise my photos. Here are some of my favourites from the past day or so in Blogland.

This site also has a widget you can use on your blog to show your photos.

We ♥ it

I also adore this social bookmarking site. Just like Pinterest and vi.sualize.us, you add the ‘We ♥ it’ bookmarklet to your favourites toolbar. Then when you find a photo you like, you click on the ♥ bookmarklet. The photo then looks like this.

You click on the white heart and then this box opens up.

It shows the photo has been added to my collection or ‘heart’ and retains the source URL address. They are currently working on creating a widget so you can add your ‘We ♥ it’ badge to your sidebar to enable people to see your ‘hearted’ photos.

So, I hope this might inspire you to find some more loveliness out there in Blogland. Do share if you know of any other brilliant sites we should know about. Oh, and just ask if you want something clarified and I’ll do my best to answer your query. Enjoy!