Flickr alternatives?

For a few days this entire issue about Flickr censoring German users has been around, and even though I don't seem to be affected - because I use my Yahoo! account back from when I lived the U.S. - I thought it's time to move on and find another backup and playground for my snapshots.

I am not really sure if you can blame Flickr for this mess - yeah, they are a business. Yeah, they want to protect their employees. And yeah, they belong to the master of all double standards, Yahoo! Inc..

So anyway, for sure I wish Flickr was more open in this entire discussion, but even though the thread on the forum is probably the most active in Flickr history, the staff decided not to disclose any more information which would explain the situation. I sure don't understand what made them impose those filters on their German userbase, so most people are left speculating and there is no update in sight.

And to extend this - you may call me pathetic -, I reactivated my ma.gnolia today to move away from del.icio.us as well. I never owned Yahoo! mail. And since I only used upcoming.org to confirm going to a Flickr party - well I just don't have to look for an alternative there.

So far the easy stuff, finding a Flickr substitute is not as easy as moving my bookmarks. In fact, I think I will extend my pro account in July because I rely on it far too much in terms of backup and so on. I also made so many valueable contacts on Flickr and would really miss browsing their photostream.

So anyway, I will most likely stop posting to Flickr once I found an alternative, but until then - here is a list.

Alternatives

http://smugmug.com
Many, many features. API, the people running it seem to be very professional. Photo presentation looks slick, but it lacks community.

http://23hq.com
A Flickr clone, almost an identical twin. I just wish it would look less monotonous. The colors really suck.

http://zooomr.com
Zooomr is a tough one. Yeah, it's pretty slick too, but it has a Myspace touch, just not the Myspace crap look. Every now and then I run into dead links on their website and essential features like "password recovery" do not exist, which really is a pitty.

The funny thing is, after looking for my password for too long, I sent the CEO of Zooomr (Thomas Hawk) a message on Flickr and he reset my password this morning. Personally, I find it pretty amusing that I could only get in touch with Zooomr on their competitor's website - Zoomr's contact form does not work and comments on the Zooomr blog did  not catch their attention.

All in all, of course I am glad that he reset my password. I know that Zooomr is a two-man-show, but I just don't know if my pictures will vanish by tomorrow if they screw up or something. I just hope they won't.

http://ipernity.com
Ipernity really doesn't look bad, but I think it's way too much for me. I wish it would focus on pictures and not so much on sharing everything and a whole lot more. Rumour has it, that Ipernity has an API, but I couldn't find it yet. Ipernity also faces the Zooomr problem - pages missing, and sometimes suddenly it's French, and so on.

Those didn't do it for me

http://www.zenfolio.com/
Nothing to add. They just don't do it for me.

http://webshots.com
CNET owned Webshots is said to censor way more than Flickr.

http://www.esnips.com/

http://www.photobucket.com/
I already don't like how they whore out their services to Myspace and Facebook. Also - way to Web 1.0. ;-)

http://zoto.com