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# Photo synthesis
- URL: https://www.lorcandempsey.net/photo-synthesis/
- Published: 2006-06-26T02:33:11.000Z
- Updated: 2020-10-28T20:54:24.000Z
- Author: Lorcan Dempsey
- Tags: Collections, Social, Systems

There was a flurry of conversation last week about Hitwise’s [blog entry report](https://weblogs.hitwise.com/leeann-prescott/2006/06/photobucket%5Fleads%5Fphoto%5Fsharin.html?ref=lorcandempsey.net) on use of web-based image management sites. The surprise was they claimed that PhotoBucket.com had about 44% of the photo-site market, ahead of Yahoo! Photos (18%) and Webshots Community (8.34%). Flickr was in sixth place with around 6%.  
In the entry, LeeAnn Prescott discusses how one might have imagined Flickr to be higher on the list based on the amount of discussion around it.  
What I found most interesting was the impact of MySpace:

> Photobucket, Slide, and Imageshack are all image hosting sites, and MySpace is their primary source of traffic. In fact, MySpace was responsible for 76% of Slide’s traffic in May 2006, 56% of Photobucket’s traffic, and 50% of Imageshack’s traffic. The growth of Photobucket and Slide go hand in hand the growth of consumer generated content and social networking sites, as I’ve reported [before](https://weblogs.hitwise.com/leeann-prescott/2006/05/myspace%5Fstill%5Fgrowing%5Fin%5Fus%5Fde.html?ref=lorcandempsey.net). It’s amazing to consider that the 1.39% of the downstream traffic from MySpace that goes to Photobucket could be largely responsible for Photobucket’s category dominance. \[[LeeAnn Prescott – Hitwise US: PhotoBucket Leads Photo Sharing Sites; Flickr at #6](https://weblogs.hitwise.com/leeann-prescott/2006/06/photobucket%5Fleads%5Fphoto%5Fsharin.html?ref=lorcandempsey.net)\] 

 In this context, I was also interested to come across the following note in Business Week Online:

> In response to an audience question at the Supernova conference a few hours ago, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels revealed that a group of Amazon engineers is looking at ways to use Amazon Web services to bridge Amazon with Second Life. According to a comment by Vogels at the virtual-worlds blog [3pointD.com](https://www.3pointd.com/20060623/amazoncom-headed-to-second-life/?ref=lorcandempsey.net), it’s not an official project. But it’s no secret that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is an investor in Second Life creator Linden Lab, so I don’t doubt those engineers will come up with something. \[[Amazon.com May Get a Second Life](https://www.businessweek.com/the%5Fthread/techbeat/archives/2006/06/amazoncom%5Fmay%5Fg.html?ref=lorcandempsey.net)\]

MySpace and Second life aggregate demand: being in the ‘flow’ of their users increases use.  
Related entries:

- [In the flow](https://blog.oclc.org/lorcand/archives/000688.html?ref=lorcandempsey.net)
- [Libraries, logistics and the long tail](https://blog.oclc.org/lorcand/archives/000949.html?ref=lorcandempsey.net)