Facebook, the leader among social networking sites, began to release a huge new feature last week: hi-resolution photos. Though at first this may seem a minor change, it does in fact have important implications, not only for Facebook’s competitors, but also for Facebook users and advertisers.
Allowing users to upload photos and tag their friends in them, Facebook has always been a great place for friends to share pictures with one another. Until now, the biggest photo size allowed on Facebook was 720 pixels. However, with this upgrade users will be able to upload photos of up to 2048 pixels wide or high– in other words, print-quality images. Along with this, Facebook will also be including bulk tagging options and photo-downloading links.
For the average user, this means any photo they upload will be easier than ever to download and print out, which may finally be a great way for people to have hard copies of their photos, instead of relying solely on digital files to store all their photo albums.
For advertisers, these high-res, easy to download photos may be a blessing and a curse. Because the photos on Facebook will be of such a high quality, advertisers may need to start considering the benefits of hiring a professional photographer for any online ad campaign. Since there will be an easily accessible photo-download link, companies may benefit twice over if the photos on their site are print-worthy. However, professional photographers and designers aren’t a cheap investment, and could mean some potential risk, especially for small companies with an already stretched budget.
As much as this Facebook upgrade will change users’ and advertisers’ Facebook experience, it’s bound to have even bigger impacts on the web’s most popular photo-sharing sites, Picasa, Flickr, and Shutterfly. These sites can probably expect to see a drop in users, not to mention a good deal of press claiming that these sites are outdated.
However, each of the sites still offer a unique service not yet offered by Facebook. Flickr for instance, who will probably be the hardest hit, is commonly used by professional photographers to exhibit their portfolios. Since Facebook caters to a more casual feeling (mainly its friends sharing photos with each other), Flickr will probably still be tops for showing off professional work. Picasa will probably be able to weather Facebook’s hi-res photo addition, since they offer a downloadable program that allows users do basic photo editing before they upload their pictures, a feature also not yet offered by Facebook. Shutterfly will likely do the best of these, since a good deal of their revenue comes from their photo printing service, again, something not offered by Facebook.
It remains to be seen whether or not Facebook will eliminate the need for sites like Flickr, Picasa, or Shutterfly, but one thing is sure–in a few months’ time, we’ll have an extremely clear, high-resolution picture of just how big an impact Facebook’s new photo policy has had.
What do you think? Are you excited to finally have hi-res photos integrated into your social network, or are you dreading all your friends being able to see every pore on your face in crisp hi-res detail? Share your thoughts in the comments!
