One of the great things about digital photos is that you can easily share them with anyone who has a personal computer and an Internet connection. All you have to do is upload your photos to an online picture service, and the online photo albums you create can be viewed by anyone who has the album's URL.
In addition, online picture services also offer a variety of other services. Most let you order prints of your photos, and some also offer specialty products for your photos, such as posters, t-shirts, coffee mugs and so on.
Many sites offer online picture services, so how do you pick the one that's right for you?
Online Picture Service FeaturesFinding an Online Picture ServiceExploring AOL PicturesOne of the most popular online picture services is AOL Pictures. Let's take a quick tour.
AOL Pictures lets you create online photo albums with the pictures you upload, and then share those albums with your friends and family. Creating a new photo album and uploading pictures is as easy as clicking the Create Album button; from there, use the Picture Tool to browse through the photos on your hard drive, or to drag and drop photos from another window. The pictures you select are uploaded to AOL Pictures, into the photo album of your choice. To share an album with others, click the Share icon and enter the email addresses of your family and friends. AOL Pictures will send them an email containing the URL of the selected photo album.
You can print your uploaded photos either on your own printer or through the AOL Pictures service. To print using your own printer, select one or more photos in an album, then click the Print button; you can choose from a variety of picture sizes. To order photo prints, go to AOL Pictures' Print Store and click the Order Prints link. Select the photos you want to order and the size of the prints. Then check out and pay. Prints run from 19 cents for a 4" x 6" to $3.79 for an 8" x 10." You can also order a variety of photo gifts, including FlipBooks, MemoryBooks, Photo Cards, Photo Calendars, ornaments, clothing, mugs, toys and more.
Michael Miller is a writer and commentator on technology and digital lifestyle topics. 
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