PiXPO Review

I like creating online photo albums. It provides an easy way to share photos with friends and family. Keeping track of who I should notify every time I have new pictures is a little more complicated, however.

I personally don't like posting pictures to the Web and having them visible to anyone who happens to wander by my site: password protection keeps out unwanted visitors, but it isn't very convenient and you still have to email everyone who needs the password. And let's be honest -- creating a website with password protection isn't easy for the majority of Internet users.

So, what other options exist?

Peer-to-peer (P2P) File Sharing

P2P file sharing often gets a bad rap because so much of it involves downloading pirated software or copyrighted multimedia content (such as MP3s and videos).

On the other hand, P2P technology is also the basis for legitimate applications like instant messaging clients from AIM, Yahoo Messenger, and ICQ. P2P creates the potential for sharing photo albums with trusted friends and family, while avoiding all the people who shouldn't see the photos.

PiXPO takes this a step further by embracing P2P technology in a 'controlled photo sharing' environment -- making it easier than 1-2-3 to share photos with friends and family.

How does it work?

PiXPO lets users create photo albums from images on their hard drive and then invite other PiXPO users to view the photos (similar to a chat program).

Creating photo albums is as simple as using PiXPO search your PC for images. When images are located, PiXPO offers the option to share individual files or to share entire folders as Web albums. By excluding any photos or folders you don't want to share, control over who sees what remains consistent.

Managing your friends list with PiXPO

What makes PiXPO even more robust is its ability to manage contacts.

Adding contacts is very similar to adding contacts in an instant messaging client. PiXPO manages contacts in groups, allowing the user to notify a large group of contacts when a new photo album is ready for viewing. Photo albums may be either public (any PiXPO user with a contact relationship may view them) or private (only assigned contacts have rights to view photos).

When someone adds a contact to their list, the new contact gains access to all public albums. In order for this new contact to see the private albums, the contact must first receive an invitation to view them.

With a private album, sending relatives an invite to view pictures of the new baby means only the relatives who were invited will see those baby pictures. This process is further simplified by adding everyone to a group; the entire group receives the baby announcement at once.

In addition to photo album sharing, PiXPO also makes it easy to interact with public albums. For example, if I have a series of photos from the company picnic, I can invite everyone in the company to download the pictures, directly through PiXPO. A chat feature lets you discuss pictures (or anything else) with other PiXPO users.

Conclusion

For complete control over photo sharing with other users, there is simply no easier method available. PiXPO is free to download with unlimited public sharing. Private Sharing is available free for the first 30 days of use ($29.95 to register).

http://www.infopackets.com/articles/pixpo+download.htm