Photoshop.com to get more social and in sync

Adobe plans new options next week to give its Photoshop.com a bigger social destination and to help the service stay in sync with people's computers.

Photoshop.com can be used to store, edit, and share photos, but today those activities happen largely in isolation. That will change November 11 as the company releases an AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) application called AIR Uploader that will let people synchronize photos stored on their own computers and on the online photography site, Adobe said.

Another change will let site members import address books from Google's Gmail, Microsoft's Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail so that photos can be sent to family members or other contacts more easily. And another social dimension will come with the ability to sign up to receive updates whenever contacts add new photos.

Photoshop.com is closely tied to Adobe's consumer-oriented photo and video software, Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, and the online site could mean extra revenue for Adobe if it takes off.

Next week, people who've bought the latest version 7 of those packages will get new Photoshop.com storage options: basic membership costs $19.99 per year for 20 GB of storage, 40GB costs $39.99, and 100GB costs $99.99.

The higher-end Plus membership, which adds album templates and tutorials, costs $49.99 annually for 20GB, $69.99 for 40GB, and $129.99 for 100GB. And for people who don't have the Elements software, online-only customers can buy storage at $19.99 per year for 20 GB, $39.99 for 40GB, and $99.99 for 100GB.

[Galaxy5]

Why are they a laggard? Is there some nascent audience of people who need to make adjustments to photographs online?

If so, please point me to this group of people so I can explain how dumb that whole idea sounds. "Hey, let's push golfballs through a straw in order to clean them!"