Weekend Webware: Slidez photo slide shows

Slidez is a new photo slide show tool for showing off photos on blogs, Web sites, and social networking profiles. Slidez pulls double duty as a hosting service and presentation tool, allowing users to upload and organize their photo library online. It's not a substitute for photo-hosting services like Flickr, Photobucket, or Yahoo Photos, but its embeddable slide shows are good-looking, and easy to put together.

Basic photo management is kept simple with a batch uploader that allows you to select multiple photos from your hard drive. As a test batch I uploaded 20 shots without a problem. Your photos reside in a master library, where they can be dragged into individual albums called "presentations." To re-order shots within a presentation, just drag and drop photos like you would in a software app like iPhoto or Picasa.

To share a photo show, just click the Share button. This will pull up options to send the URL to the show via e-mail, embed it as a slide show, or grab the XML feed for people to subscribe to using their favorite reader.

The slide show arena is a crowded space with services like Slide, RockYou, Vmix, Goodwidgets, Splashcast, and Badgr. Admittedly, most of those services have their sights on MySpace and other social networking sites. Slidez seems aimed at people who want to make and send a slide show without fuss and it manages to do a good job.

[MichaelF.]

UI suggestion

I'd have the thumbnail navigation panel appear any time you mouse over the
picture, rather than just when the pointer nears the right side of the widget. Nice
find :)

[Josh.Lowensohn]

I forgot to mention...

There are a few other options for the thumbnail viewer. You can set it to any side of the screen (like the dock in OS X) and toggle autohide on and off.

Send your feedback here: [e-mail]

[MichaelF.]

UI suggestion

I'd have the thumbnail navigation panel appear any time you mouse over the
picture, rather than just when the pointer nears the right side of the widget. Nice
find :)

[Josh.Lowensohn]

I forgot to mention...

There are a few other options for the thumbnail viewer. You can set it to any side of the screen (like the dock in OS X) and toggle autohide on and off.

Send your feedback here: [e-mail]