Fotki

Fotki is a digital photo sharing, video sharing and media social network website and web service suite; it is one of the world's largest social networking sites. In many ways, the site appears to be similar to the majority of other popular photo sites which support a number of so-called Web 2.0 features, such as use of Ajax, tagging, RSS feeds, social bookmarking, GPS location information and Exif info display.

The service offers unlimited storage space for digital images to Premium (i.e., paid) account holders and also to free account holders from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia. It also offers blogging (similar to LiveJournal or Blogger), online printing and selling of prints at custom prices, as well as email and co-branding.

Fotki community tools allow tagging photos and videos, detailed profiling, saving and organizing links (similar to del.icio.us), as well as photo and member search using folksonomic tools.

Fotki is licensing photo-sharing software for many global companies, such as Telecom Italia, Alice.it, Sears, Mark Travel, Vegas.com, Funjet.com etc.

As of January 2011, Fotki claims to have over 1 million 600 thousand registered members from 241 countries and hosts over a billion digital images. It ranks in the 1400s in popularity by Alexa.

Etymology

In Slavic languages, like Russian or Polish, "fotki" (Russian: Фо́тки, Russian pronunciation: [foˈtkʲɪ]; Polish: fotki, Polish pronunciation: [ˈfot.ki]) is short for "fotografii" (Russian: Фотогра́фии, Russian pronunciation: [fətɐɡraˈfʲɪɪ]) or "fotografie" (Polish pronunciation: [fɔtɔˈɡrafɪɛ]) ("photos") .

Features

Sharing

The primary purpose of the site is to allow and facilitate the process of sharing digital photos online which includes 4 phases:

Upload - transferring an image file from a local device, such as computer, camera phone, pocket PC etc to Fotki's server. Fotki provides several tools and applications to simplify the process and to accommodate users of multiple platforms. Some upload applications support the transfer of multiple files at a time.

Storage - storing uploaded files on Fotki's servers.

Organization and presentation - ability to organize uploaded files into a structure based on the user's tastes and preferences and present them to viewers. Users have access to various management and customization tools.

Access - making the digital media available online for viewing and download. The company provides a user interface for viewing and navigation, search tools and different security options to restrict access to the content if necessary.

Upload Tools

As of January 2011, the following upload tools are available on Fotki:

One at a time: allows uploading one photo at a time through the browser.

Java uploader: opens an embedded Java application which allows the user to navigate the local folders, select photos and add them to the upload list. Allows uploading multiple files at a time. Supports image preview for some formats. Requires Java installed on the user's computer.

Fotki Easy uploader: supports drag and drop uploading. Requires Java installed on the user's computer.

ActiveX: similar to Java, recommended for Internet Explorer users.

Fotki Desktop Beta: allows selecting multiple files from local folders and sending them to Fotki using the right-click menu. Requires installation of a plug-in (provided).

Web Publishing Wizard: allows uploading multiple files from a local folder using the Windows "Publish to the Web" function. Requires installation of a plug-in (provided).

Fotki Upload Bookmarklet: creates a bookmark for a JavaScript function which can be run while viewing any web page. All images contained on that page will be extracted and made ready for upload. Internet Explorer is not supported.

Fetch from the Internet: a browser-based function that allows the user to copy an image from any web page to Fotki by specifying the image's URL. Supports one image at a time.

FTP: allows using a standalone FTP program for image upload. Available to Premium, Trial and Free Unlimited members only.

History

Fotki was founded in 1998 by Dmitri Don (current President) and Katrin Lilleoks (his wife) to store and share digital photos and to communicate with friends and relatives around the world. In 2001, the commercial version was launched. Since 2003, Fotki is a registered trade mark in the USA.

In June, 2007, Fotki.com was recognized by CNET as one of the best Web 2.0 applications.