The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.
Name: ZangZing
Quick Pitch: Store and share your photos from multiple services in one place.
Genius Idea: Makes it easy to create and share group albums using email.
Some of my photos are stored on Instagram. Many more are saved across Facebook, iPhoto, Picasa, Flickr, Dropbox and in a stationary box on top of my dresser.
Earlier this week, I used ZangZing, a photo storage and sharing app, to bring them all together. (Well, most of them. The printed ones remain in the stationary box.) The clean, intuitively designed web app lets you quickly import your photos from your computer, iPhoto, Picasa, Facebook (including your friends' photos), Flickr, Instagram, Shutterfly, Kodak, MobileMe, SmugMug, Photobucket and Dropbox. You can also automatically share out new uploads to Facebook, Twitter and email.
While it's nice to have all my photos in one place, the best part about ZangZing is its group photo-sharing features. When you create a public or private album, you have the option to invite others to contribute. Friends can simply send a reply email to your album's designated address (i.e., albumname@yourusername.zangzing.com) — no signup required — or they can head over to the album's URL to import photos from any of the previously mentioned services that ZangZing supports. It's an easy way to gather shots from a big group event like, say, a baseball game or a birthday party, particularly for those whose familiarity with the web doesn't extend much beyond email.
Once photos are uploaded, viewers can leave comments and download high-resolution versions from the album.
ZangZing does have some drawbacks. It's not easy to sort albums after you've uploaded your photos, for one thing, and there's no option to create sub-folders. The service won't automatically import any of your new uploads to Instagram, etc.; you'll have to reimport them yourself. The site also isn't fully optimized for mobile, although that — as well as an iPhone app — are currently in the works, ZangZing CEO and co-founder Joseph Ansanelli says.
The site launched in private beta last April, and launched version 2.0 last month. Unlike just about every other startup we write about, the company isn't banking on ads or brand partnerships to support itself: Instead, ZangZing is hoping users will purchase prints and other photo products through the site. The startup is also planning to introduce a freemium payment model mid-year that would let users expand their storage space. Users are given 2 gigabytes of storage at signup, and can earn another 8 gigabytes by signing up friends. After that, they can opt to pay $5 per month (or $50 per year) for 25 additional gigs, or $10 per month ($100 per year) for 50 gigs on top of that.
Series Supported by Microsoft BizSpark
The Spark of Genius Series highlights a unique feature of startups and is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark, a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.
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