As reported by the Tech Web Network, Flickr traffic has surged due to Yahoo but for me, I made the move to Flickr from Webshots over a $5 difference!
After being with Webshots for a number of years, utilizing their premium services as soon as I bought my first 6 megapixel camera. I knew I would want a place to store them in their full image size as well as a place to send friends and family instead of using email which would never handle this size of a file. You pay for your premium service once a year and I just received notice from Webshots that it was 3 weeks from being due and that my credit card on file would be charged. Now I am not a very big fan of 'automatic renewals' no matter how good your service may be, I still want to shop around or at least know that I am getting the best 'bang for my buck'
So with a quick email to webshots asking why their rates had gone up substantially (I think the first year it was $20 and now $29.95), knowing that storage space is becoming more available so it would seem this should go down, which by not going up at all in my opinion, is pretty much the same as a rate drop with everything else on the rise. But in the end, after a few days and no response, I figured I would start to test out these other guys.
I always had a flickr account since I also have Yahoo, but only placed a few family pictures and actually used it as a temporary picture storage place, more for organizing as they seemed to have a very user friendly and functional photo manager. Although Flicker and Webshots do have a free service, I can still use the free webshots service but for me, the switch of premium services has been something that I will continue to do as I utilize other services online such as the Carbonite backup service and the LogMeIn remote services.
Now just because I made the move doesn't mean the Webshots service isn't for you. You will be paying $5 more but they may also have some service that works better or easier for you. The free screen saver is nice but that too is something you can use without being a premium member.
