Amateur Photogs Hit the Big Time Online

Historical archives find new life online

(NEWSER) - Flickr users are helping the Library of Congress identify photos in its historical archives, reports USA Today. So far, users have supplied information on 500 photos featured in Flickr's "The Commons" project, which drew 8.2 million views in just 6 months. Both partners are "stunned by the level of knowledge and also the generosity" of contributors, says one Flickr rep. More»

From Facebook to bank accounts, online afterlife a thorny legal area

(NEWSER) - These days grieving relatives have a new problem to contend with: managing the Facebook, Flickr, and eBay accounts of the dead. As people trust ever more of their lives to the Internet, from email and online banking to identities on Second Life, very few have considered what exactly will happen to all that online data when they die, the Washington Post reports—and new businesses are popping up to help the heirs of the dearly departed access everything from password-protected photographs to money. More»

Time ranks top websites

(NEWSER) - Overwhelmed by the stream of new, powerful sites constantly emerging to suit every taste? Time picks 50 you should explore, if you haven’t already:

• Etsy: “The long-haired, Birkenstocked love child of Amazon and eBay,” and the place to go online for handmade crafts, from housewares to clothing.
• Hulu: The television industry’s answer to the music industry’s pirating troubles. It gives the people what they want, at the price they want—free.

(NEWSER) - "I don't have any experience in the realm of taking nude photos," admits Sam Greenspan on 11 Points, but he's "looked at millions" of them. Here are his tips for taking pics in the buff:

• Don't shoot them yourself: Among other terrible things, MySpace has popularized the outstreched-arm self-portrait. "That's not a 'sexy' angle, it's a lazy angle."
• Use makeup: Blemishes abound, and "you're not good enough with Photoshop" to fix them later. "The most important reason to fix all this stuff is because you MUST be confident."

Slams service after hacker permanently deletes costly images

(NEWSER) - Flickr has earned a blogger’s harsh rebuke for losing 3,000 of his photos, Gawker reports. A hacker was able to permanently delete the photos by attaching a Hotmail account to Morgan Tepsic’s Flickr account, and Tepsic is livid that Flickr didn’t better protect work he says cost him thousands to develop. He’s no fan of its customer-service or support operations, either. More»