Yahoo launches beta version of web-based photo sharing site

Yahoo Photos, an online photo sharing site, has beta-launched a web-based product that offers desktop functionality, including drag-and-drop organization, tagging, comments and advanced search capabilities.

The new service, announced yesterday, enables people to exchange comments on shared photos, add tags to help organize each other’s photos and rate them for simple searching. Yahoo Photos also has deep integration across the Yahoo network—including Yahoo Mail, Messenger, Mobile and 360—allowing users a universally accessible location where they can view photos, Yahoo said.

The new Yahoo Photos also offers downloadable high-resolution photos.

“The new features and redesigned interface make photo management more efficient so people spend less time maintaining their collections and more time viewing and sharing them with family and friends,” a spokesman said.

Yahoo Photos was the second largest photography site in April, attracting 7.8 million visitors, a 22% increase from 6.4 million a year earlier, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Flickr, Yahoo’s photo hosting service, had 4.8 million visitors, a 336% increase from 1.1 million in April 2005. A combined Yahoo/Flickr site would rank as the number one photography site, with 11.3 million, up 53% from 7.4 million in April 2005, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.