Shutterfly Flutters Into Social Networking Offering

Chicago (IL) - Shutterfly, an Internet veteran that sports an online photo site, is going Web 2.0 as it plunges into a new social network offering. The company is calling this new offering Shutterfly Share Sites.

Shutterfly says its new, free Share Sites combine "the best of photo sites, blogs, and social networking in a way that allows customers to easily connect and collaborate with friends and family in a safe and secure environment." This translates to mean one follows a three-step setup process which involves determining the style of the site you want, naming your site so you can a personalized URL and customizing features before inviting in others to become site members.

The site members, in turn, can add photos, share photo books, write journal entries and post comments as well as make a variety of photo books, cards, calendars and other photo merchandise using the photos from their Share Site. Each site also gets its own dedicated email address, where members can email comments and photos that are posted directly.

Shutterfly added that more than 60,000 individual Share Sites have already been created since it opened its beta test earlier this summer.