RockYou clicks with social network sites

LOS ANGELES -- Jia Shen wanted to make a big splash with his new photo-sharing site, RockYou, so he targeted users of social networks such as MySpace and Facebook.

RockYou's pitch: easy-to-share slideshows and decorations, including floating hearts and glitter text.

Shen is clearly onto something. In May, red-hot social network Facebook added RockYou to the list of outside applications Facebook fans can add to their personal pages; 15 million have signed up.

RockYou is one of a new breed of photo-sharing sites that cater to young and savvy Web users. The top three in the category — Photobucket, Flickr and Slide — garner more than 50% of all photo-sharing traffic, according to measurement firm Hitwise.

RockYou is one of three kinds of photo-sharing sites on the Web. There's the hip brand, with cool ways to doll up your photos and share them. Second category: traditional upload-and-print sites such as Shutterfly and Kodak, primarily aimed at selling photo merchandise. In a category all its own, the single community sites such as Yahoo's Flickr, focused on sharing and interaction, with group comments.

Some sites say goodbye

With the changes in photoland, some traditional sites are struggling to remain relevant. Early next year, Sony will shut its ImageStation site. Two other familiar sites are closing down this month: Yahoo Photos on Sept. 20; and PhotoSite on Sept. 27.

Traditional upload-and-print Yahoo Photos saw its audience plummet to 3.5 million users in July 2007 from 8.6 million in July 2006, according to market tracker Nielsen//NetRatings. Yahoo is migrating most Yahoo Photos customers to Flickr, a more community-oriented photo-sharing site that has been a hit for Yahoo since it acquired it in March 2005. Flickr's audience almost doubled year to year, to 11.1 million users this July from 6.3 million users in July 2006, says Nielsen.

At Flickr, members can showcase their work in large, impressive displays and post directly to blogs. Sites such as RockYou and Slide take it up a notch. RockYou invites members to share their work at Facebook, MySpace, eBay, blogs and newer social sites such as Bebo, Hi5, Tagged and Zorpia.