shutterfly

Shutterfly announced today that it has acquired cloud-based image-storing service ThisLife.

ThisLife is a lesser-known service for users who want to store photos and videos on the Web. Upon uploading videos or images to ThisLife, users can organize them into events or categories and share them with others. Shutterfly didn't say how much it acquired ThisLife for, but the company noted that the deal will enhance its own services.

According to Shutterfly, in the coming months, it will incorporate ThisLife's storage and sharing features into its own platform. Users will be able to add photos from a host … Read more

On July 2, the Kodak Gallery will be shuttered. The good news is that if you do nothing, your photos will be moved to Shutterfly. Still, there are a few housekeeping items to keep in mind.

For starters, Kodak states the process will involve 5 billion photos and could take several months to complete. Thus, be sure to download any photos (or order a DVD) from your Kodak Gallery prior to July 2 that you might need access to in July, August, and perhaps September and October. And while you can download full-resolution photos from the Kodak Gallery, you can't at Shutterfly, giving you another reason to peruse your Kodak Gallery for potential downloads.… Read more

Eastman Kodak, operating under bankruptcy protection, agreed to sell the customer accounts of Kodak Gallery to Shutterfly for $23.8 million.

Shutterfly's offer is the first step of a competitive bidding process designed to maximize the value of Kodak's assets. The so-called stalking-horse bid could lead to another buyer picking up the business. In a statement, Kodak said it hopes to complete the sale process this spring.

"This sale is consistent with our objective of focusing Kodak on a core set of businesses in which we can most profitably leverage our technology and brand strengths, and provides … Read more

If you still need that perfect gift this Christmas, you can always make something special, like a book, calendar, or other personalized item. But if you're going to do it, you should hurry.

Many of the services on the Internet that handle making personalized gifts have begun to announce shipping deadlines for customers to create the product and still have them in time for Christmas.

There are a number of places, including Apple, Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Blurb.com, that allow you to create a gift that is more creative--and certainly more focused and individual--than buying something off the shelf at a big box store. But people who want to take advantage of these service should get a move on. … Read more

Legislation that makes it illegal for Web merchants and so-called post-transaction marketers to charge credit cards without the card owners' say-so came closer to becoming law this week.

A bill known as the "Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act" passed on Tuesday in the U.S. Senate. The law will make it illegal to use "misleading post-transaction advertisements" and require marketers to clearly disclose the terms of their offers. Merchants and marketers must now "obtain billing information, including full credit or debit card numbers," directly from card holders. The legislation was the government's answer … Read more

Google announced the Chrome Web Store at the Google I/O conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. It is a place to find and install programs that run in the Chrome browser, and most likely in the Chrome operating system in the near future. So it's Web-based software. Or SaaS.

Now why do we care about this when we can easily just go to a Web site and accomplish the same … Read more

The nightmare of the mysterious debit card charges began this way for Caroline Butler:

She noticed that Privacy Matters 123, a membership program she had never heard of, was charging her $20 every month. She had no idea how to get her money back or even how to get the company to stop. All she knew was that they were draining the bank account used to help pay the medical bills for her 18-year-old daughter, a cancer patient.

Somehow, Butler, a freelance photographer from Paducah, Ky., unintentionally enrolled in the membership program during a visit to social-networking site, Classmates.com, … Read more

Update: Dec. 15, 2009 7:50 a.m.: To include US Airways in list of companies that have stopped using post-transaction companies.

Priceline, an online travel site accused by the government of selling customer credit card information to "scam" marketers, says it no longer has any relationship with those marketing firms.

Company spokesman Brian Ek said Priceline, perhaps best known as the "name your price" company, stopped using post-transaction firm Affinion sometime last month. The news was first reported by The Connecticut Post.

In May, the U.S. Senate launched a probe of the company, as … Read more

First, the good news for consumers: the U.S. government's investigation into how dozens of well-known online stores worked with controversial marketers to "deceive" customers out of $1.4 billion has prompted some retailers, including Continental Airlines, to sever ties with the marketers.

Now, the bad news: the marketers--Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty--are still in business and judging from the responses of many of the retailers involved, such as Priceline, Classmates.com, FTD, Shutterfly, and Orbitz, it will be business as usual. They see nothing wrong with the marketing practices that millions of angry online shoppers and members … Read more