Our VP of Marketing, David Toner, talks about how the all-new Photobucket serves the needs of today’s consumers, their fragmented photo libraries and stories:
In the News: Image Hosting Pioneer Photobucket Expands Video Storytelling
Category Archives: Press Releases
Powerful, intuitive, creative: Meet Our New Photo Editor
If you saw our recent 2012 recap, you know that we’ve been working hard to create a complete, best-in-class user experience for our Photobucket community, regularly releasing features and improvements as part of the new site rollout.
Since launching the all-new Photobucket site back in August, we’ve added Stories, shared your best adventures (see Summer Brennan’s $25K winning Story here), built out features, and continued to enhance the site based on feedback from you.
Now, as we prepare to migrate all customers to the all-new Photobucket site, we’re announcing the latest improvement: our editing experience.
We’re excited to announce that we’ve partnered with Aviary, the industry leader in photo editing. Aviary’s editor is powerful enough for our power users, yet intuitive enough that beginners can jump right in.
Here’s what we think you’ll like about the new photo editor:
- Intuitive: Easily adjust the contrast, brightness and color of your shots
- Powerful: Utilize everything from cool effects to professional touch-up tools
- Creative: Have fun experimenting with new stickers and text options
Our new Aviary photo editor will not only allow you to discover new artistic tools and effects, but you can also edit and design your photos with ease (in just a few clicks!), thanks to easy photo effects, filter and editing tools.
The integration with Aviary will also enable us to offer a consistent editing suite – available immediately on the web (and coming this spring for mobile and tablet) – for a more cohesive Photobucket experience. Give it a shot: we’re confident that you’ll see it’s never been easier to bring your photos to life, and adding a professional touch to your images has never been so simple.
We hope this helps you to get more creative with your existing memories and inspires you to create some new ones to store and share on the all-new Photobucket.
Updated Scoop on the Latest Updates to the All-New Photobucket!
February 7, 2012 update: As we mentioned in our recent blog post, we’ve been hard at work releasing features and making improvements on the new site (thanks for your feedback – and keep it coming!). We’re excited to announce the first two updates related to linking and editing:
First, the linking news: Easier link copying is now ready. Yes, you asked, and we listened – easy linking mode is now available via the all-new Photobucket user experience.
What does that mean? Well, we will be offering the same easy access to links (direct, email & IM, HTML, and IMG) as historically available on our original Photobucket site – only this time it’s quicker and easier to do.
In your User Settings, under the Album tab, you will find an option to turn on Easy Linking Mode. Enabling it will display the codes below the thumbnails in your albums for easy copying and linking of your photos. Simply double click the code and either right click on your mouse and copy or press Ctrl+C after the code is highlighted, then paste as you please.
Second, the editing news: An improved editor is now available. That’s right, we’ve unveiled an improved editor, which will be easier for editors of all levels to use, on the all-new Photobucket.
Please note: The old editor is no longer available on the original site, so now is the perfect time to make the switch if you haven’t already!
How to Access an Old Photobucket Account
Many Photobucket users are inquiring how they can get access to their old Photobucket accounts. Never fear! Those fun and fabulous images are still safely preserved on our Photobucket servers. AND if you haven’t visited Photobucket in a while we hope you enjoy the newly re-designed look and features of the all-new Photobucket, including our new Stories feature.
First things first. If you are unable to access your account because you can no longer remember your password, try resetting your password here: http://beta.photobucket.com/userinfo
If you still can’t access your account, because you no longer have access to the email address associated with the original Photobucket account, visit this support page for more advanced support: http://photobucket.zendesk.com/entries/21079008
You will be asked to submit a request with “Photobucket Account Recovery” as the subject. You will also be asked to provide answers to security questions such as:
- What is your Photobucket username?
- What email address is currently registered with the account?
- Approximately when was the account registered (year and month)?
- What is the first and last name registered with the account?
- What is the account owner’s date of birth?
- Etc.
In addition you will be asked to provide a completely “new” email address that is not already in use on Photobucket.com, so we can associate it with your account reset. We only allow one email address per account so we will use this new email address as your current email and will remove all prior addresses associated with the old account. We will not be able to reset your account if you provide an address that already has a Photobucket account associated with it.
We hope this helps you to retrieve your memories and inspires you to create some new ones to store and share on the all-new Photobucket.
-The Photobucket team
Photobucket’s 2012 Year in Review
Every year around this time, I like to pause and take a moment to reflect on the past 12 months and think about the successes and lessons learned while planning ahead for the next 365 days. It’s been a whirlwind of a year, but we’ve certainly got a lot to celebrate – and much more to look forward to in 2013!
Photobucket marked 2012 by transforming the act of photosharing into the art of storytelling. As the world’s leading consumer service dedicated to preserving and sharing the entire photo and video lifecycle, we are committed to being the one place where you can keep all your memories – and do literally anything you want with them, whether that’s emailing an album link, embedding in your blog, creating a social scrapbook or even designing traditional photo gifts for giving to friends and family.
Numbers-wise, we continued to keep our momentum up, thanks to our very active, very loyal base of users. Thanks to you, we’re still the largest dedicated photo and video site, hosting more than 10 billion images from 100 million registered members, who upload more than four million images and videos per day from the Web and connected digital devices. That’s a lot of memories entrusted to us, and we don’t take that responsibility lightly. In fact, our customer support team took to social media this year in full force via a dedicated Twitter handle and Facebook team to respond to your questions, comments and concerns.
Most recently, we celebrated the launch of Photobucket Stories with a $25,000 Life’s an Adventure contest, in which we received more than 4,700 entries, thanks to an active and engaged community (1M+ strong on Facebook!). It was a close race, with more than 475,000 of you taking to social media to get in on the action and cast your vote for your favorites by entering, commenting, liking and sharing them. In the end, though, Summer Brennan was crowned our champ with her touching story about her adventures in horse training titled, “Amado: Befriending a Wild Mustang.”
As evidenced in Summer’s tale, Photobucket Stories provides users with an easy new way to combine photos and videos into complete, sharable narratives – with photos, video, text, social collaboration and sharing capabilities, and more (see another great example here). It’s something we’ve worked very hard on and were proud to include on the heels of our release of the all-new beta Photobucket user experience this year. As a result, the site has seen significant increases in user engagement, as Stories continues to help us transform the act of photosharing into the art of storytelling.
Another exciting development that combined the power of Stories with the popularity of holiday cheer was our promotion with Twentieth Century Fox’s family movie comedy, PARENTAL GUIDANCE. This partnership marked our first launch of a marketing campaign including the Photobucket “Stories” platform. PARENTAL GUIDANCE Stories includes an inside look at both families – “old school” and “new school” – featured in the film, along with their respective (and humorous!) generational differences.
Along with those developments, we announced an exciting partnership with Windows 8 as a photography app available in the new Windows Store to help users encourage and enhance their creativity. We also took some time out to focus on the little things with our dedicated PB Loves gallery, which is a collection of things that make the Photobucket staff happy, whether it’s a favorite photograph, funny snapshots or moment that’s been memorialized – all put together to keep inspiring you.
So, as you can see, we’ve had quite the year, and we’re excited to carry on the positive momentum into the next year and beyond, with plans for more product enhancements, mobile updates and launches, additions in functionality and features, new and novel tools…and much, much more.
A few sneak peeks? As we continue to evolve the all-new Photobucket site, we’ve added all the features that linkers love, plus we’ll also be rolling out an improved editor and evolving the new Plus service to better suit your needs. Stay tuned for more details soon!
Thank you again for your support this past year, and we look forward to celebrating and sharing more milestones with you in 2013.
-Tom
Congratulations to our Life’s an Adventure Story Contest $25,000 Winner!
What an amazing kickoff to Photobucket Stories with our recent Life’s an Adventure contest, and huge thanks to all who participated! There certainly was some tough competition with more than 4,700 entries, many of which ran neck-and-neck after 475,000 of you took to social media to voice your vote for your favorites by entering, commenting, liking and sharing them! But that being said, we did have to narrow it down to one first place champ, and we are happy to congratulate Summer Brennan our $25,000* winner for her story titled “Amado: Befriending a Wild Mustang.”
Summer’s entry chronicles her beautiful and touching journey of her training a wild mustang stallion named Amado. She walks us through the time she spent befriending Amado and gaining his trust while training him for their 90-day “Extreme Mustang Makeover” challenge. And, of course, she includes all the emotional and dramatic ups and downs in between!
After you check out Summer’s story, be sure to take a peek at the inspiring runner-up stories that also each scored $500* for their efforts. These adventures include tales such as hiking the Appalachian Trail, taking a cruise as Hurricane Sandy hit, falling in love in Costa Rica, a family setting sail for the first time, and one woman’s seven months spent traveling the world. You won’t want to miss them!
- Click here to see a story from Mike_aidala about a personal adventure that ended with a twist.
- Click here to see a story from LookySquares about a journey of 2,176 miles through 14 states over six months, all with two pairs of shoes and a self-proclaimed “horrible beard.”
- Click here to see story from jsisting1 on some amazing travels from 2012, including Indonesia, Brazil, India and Peru.
- Click here to see story from MIST50 about her first-ever cruise, which she received as a 50th birthday gift from her sister, plus their ensuing adventure through nine states.
- Click here to see story from melody_hill about a sailing trip, which turned out to be a bonding experience for the entire family.
These Stories illustrate just how well Photobucket enables you to create and share your personal narratives using our exciting new Story platform.
So what are you waiting for? Now’s the time to start thinking about your own life adventures and all the stories you’ll want to capture, create and share of your greatest moments in pictures, text and video. We look forward to seeing what you come up with!
*Subject to verification of eligibility and compliance with Official Rules.
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, your story may be worth $25,000!
That’s right – you read it correctly. We’re giving our fabulous
Photobucket fans a chance to showcase their creativity in our “Life’s
an Adventure” contest for an opportunity to win $25,000 (and just in
time for the holidays, too!).
Participating is easy; simply submit your entry in ‘Photobucket
Story’ form via Photobucket.com/StoryContest for
consideration. Entries are being accepted now through December 9, and they will
be judged on a combination of creativity, adherence to a theme and social
engagement. Winners will be announced on December 14.
Haven’t heard about our new Photobucket Stories yet? Stories
allows you to easily create and collaborate on living stories by inviting
friends and family to contribute photos, video and text to a single, sharable
canvas. Once Stories are created, they are easily embeddable on blogs, personal
and brand sites, and can be shared among friends from mobile devices or across
Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.
To understand how Stories works, and to prepare for your contest
entry, you can see some examples of recent Stories created on Photobucket here:
- A Postal Love Story: Storybook style
story of topical event happening in a Denver Neighborhood - Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto! (Japan 2012): A travel journal
of an adventure in Japan - Island Life: Outer Hebrides, Scotland: An exploration of
Outer Hebrides, Scotland
So,
what are you waiting for? Chronicle and share your most interesting exploits
for an opportunity to win $25,000. Happy snapping, sharing and storytelling!
Photobucket App for Windows 8 Available in Windows Store
World's leading dedicated photo and video sharing service brings Windows 8 users new ways to share their life's stories
DENVER, Oct 25, 2012 — Photobucket Corporation, the world's leading dedicated photo and video sharing service, today announced that its new Photobucket app for Windows 8 is available in the Windows Store.
"Photobucket is a leader in photo and video management, making it a clear choice for inclusion in the Windows Store," said John Richards, senior director of Windows App Marketing at Microsoft Corp. "We are pleased to welcome them to the photo apps category, and we are confident that our users will enjoy managing their photos and videos here, as well."
Given Photobucket's strength, size and emphasis on both sharing and storytelling, supporting the Windows 8 platform was a natural fit. Designed specifically for the touch-driven new Windows user interface, the Photobucket app includes the following features:
– Fast and intuitive category browsing and full search of the more than 10 billion photos and videos hosted on Photobucket.com
– Full album and photo and video management experience through a new user interface optimized for Windows 8
– Optimized transfer of content between Windows 8 devices and Photobucket.com
– Robust social sharing capabilities, including direct commenting, liking and sharing to Facebook, Twitter and email
"Photobucket aims to provide our users with the richest photo and video service online, giving people the power to save, share and socialize their stories," said Tom Munro, CEO of Photobucket. "The new Photobucket app takes advantage of the power and ease of the new Windows UI, bringing that very same compelling experience to Windows customers."
The new Photobucket App for Windows 8 is available for free download now in the Windows Store.
About Photobucket
Photobucket transforms the act of photosharing into the art of storytelling. As the world's leading consumer service dedicated to preserving and sharing the entire photo and video lifecycle, Photobucket hosts more than 10 billion images from 100 million registered members, who upload more than four million images and videos per day from the Web and connected digital devices. Photobucket's headquarters are in Denver with regional offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.
For the latest feature announcements and news, please visit the Photobucket press blog at http://blog.photobucket.com/photobucket_press.
Autodesk and Photobucket to Bring Pixlr Photo Editing to 100 Million New Users
Popular Pixlr Photo Editor Offers Increased Customization for Photobucket Users
SAN RAFAEL, Calif., April 10, 2012 — Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) announced a partnership with Photobucket, the leading dedicated photo and video sharing service, to bring Pixlr™ photo editing tools to Photobucket users. Pixlr’s integration within the Photobucket website will give users access to an even more robust set of tools for editing their images directly within the Photobucket service.
Photobucket will now offer Pixlr tools, including the popular Pixlr Editor, which enables per-pixel editing, and the newly revamped Pixlr Express, which provides simple tools to correct, crop, resize and personalize images with effects, overlays and borders. The partnership between the companies will also provide advertisers with a creative environment from which they can deliver custom, branded effects in Photobucket ad packages.
“Our goal is to enable our 100 million users to share their memories and stories with simple, best-in-class creative tools; and our partnership with Pixlr enables us to do just that,” said Kate Hare, vice president, Products, Photobucket. “Whether users are looking for easy adjustments and effects, or are in need of advanced features such as layers and per-pixel editing, Pixlr significantly expands that toolset, helping us to deliver the most robust tools for photo-editing and personalization.”
“Autodesk is helping liberate creativity by making digital design and creation tools accessible and more enjoyable to a wide range of people,” said Samir Hanna, vice president, Consumer Products, Autodesk, “We’re excited to enhance the Photobucket user experience and continue to inspire creativity through Pixlr’s wide range of photo editing tools.”
With more than 25 million users, Pixlr is one of the most widely used free photo editors. It transforms any image with a fast, intuitive and robust toolset that is easy to use for inexperienced photographers with no prior knowledge of photo editing, while also offering fully featured, per-pixel editing complete with layers, adjustment tools and filters for the more advanced user. Photobucket users will have access to all Pixlr editing tools, from simple to advanced functions.
“We strive to deliver an unparalleled user experience, providing both consumers and brands with mobile and web options for simplifying their ability to tell stories through images,” said Photobucket’s Hare. “The Pixlr tools, in addition to our recently launched Social Importer, are critical components for providing consumers with an easy — yet comprehensive — solution for personalizing, storing and sharing all of their photos and videos for life.”
About Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc. is a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries ¾ including the last 17 Academy Award® winners for Best Visual Effects ¾ use Autodesk software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software for global markets. For additional information about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com.
About Photobucket
Photobucket is the world’s leading dedicated photo and video sharing service. With over 100 million registered members, Photobucket users upload over four million images and videos per day from the web and connected digital devices. Photobucket hosts, preserves and protects photos and videos while bringing members the very best browsing, sharing and editing experiences. In addition to uploading and sharing with friends and family on the Photobucket site, users can also instantly share memories across all of the most popular social networks, instant messenger applications, through email and from their mobile phones. Photobucket’s headquarters are in Denver, Colorado, with a regional office in San Francisco, California. For the latest feature announcements and news, visit the Photobucket press blog at http://blog.photobucket.com/photobucket_press.
Autodesk, AutoCAD and Pixlr are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.
© 2012 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
Photobucket to Offer Metro Style Photo Application in Inaugural Windows Store
World Leader in Photo and Video Sharing Selected to be Part of Windows 8 Launch
Denver, CO. – Feb. 29, 2012 – Photobucket Corporation, the world’s leading dedicated photo and video sharing service, today announced that it is one of an exclusive group of companies hand-selected by Microsoft Corp. to be part of the launch of the new Windows Store for Windows 8 apps.
“Once installed, the Photobucket App and Windows 8’s Metro style user interface provide a powerful way to showcase Photobucket’s functionality combined with the key features of the Windows 8 operating system. As part of the launch of the Windows Store, Photobucket will be able to deliver access to a leading platform for saving, sharing, and socializing photos and videos to Windows 8,” said Tom Munro, CEO of Photobucket.
The Photobucket app was specifically designed for the touch-driven Windows Metro style user interface and includes the following features:
- Category browsing and full search of the nearly 10 billion photos hosted on Photobucket.com
- Photobucket’s full album and photo management experience through a new user interface optimized for Metro style
- Ability to capture and upload photos directly from Windows 8-based PCs
- Integration with Windows 8 File Picker, giving consumers easy access to Photobucket images for general platform use
- Social features, including commenting, liking, and sharing out
“With its extensive user base and rich feature set for managing photos and video, Photobucket was a natural choice for the Windows Store preview,” said Aidan Marcuss, senior director of Windows Core Marking and Ecosystem at Microsoft. “We are extremely pleased to have them as an app in the photos category.”
The new Photobucket App for Windows 8 is available to those who have downloaded the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, at no cost, in the Windows Store.
About Photobucket
Photobucket is the world’s leading dedicated photo and video sharing service. With over 100 million registered members, Photobucket users upload over four million images and videos per day from the Web and connected digital devices. Photobucket hosts, preserves and protects photos and videos while bringing members the very best browsing, sharing and editing experiences. In addition to uploading and sharing with friends and family on the Photobucket site, users can also instantly share memories across all of the most popular social networks, instant messenger applications, through email, and from their mobile phones. Photobucket’s headquarters are in Denver, Colorado with a regional office in San Francisco, California.
For the latest feature announcements and news, please visit the Photobucket press blog at http://blog.photobucket.com/photobucket_press.
To create a free Photobucket account, users can visit http://photobucket.com, or find the Photobucket Mobile Application and Snapbucket app available in the app store on all major smartphone platforms. Photobucket supports Mobile Web, iPhone, Android based devices, Blackberry and Windows Phone 7.