Flickr is great site for sharing photos with your friends and family, but you can do a lot more than just share your vacation photos. Here's our guide to getting more out Flickr.

Getting Your Images On Flickr

Flickr provides a web-based uploading tool, but if you're going to put up more than a couple dozen images, you'll want something more robust. Fortunately Flickr has one of the best APIs on the web, which means there's a ton of uploading tools.

Cross platform options include Flickr's own tools, as well as a host of outside offerings like "jUploadr"<http://juploadr.org/>.

For Mac users there are plugins for Apple's photo management tool, both "iPhoto and Aperture"<http://connectedflow.com/flickrexport/>. There's also stand-alone apps like "1001"<http://1001.kung-foo.tv/>.

Windows fans can use "Flickr Sync"<http://flickrsync.freehostia.com/> which can create Flickr Sets from your desktop, making it easy to stay organized. Other options include "PicMe"<http://picme.raizlabs.com/>. Windows users can also annotate photos in "Fototagger"<http://www.fototagger.com/> and then upload to Flickr where your annotations will be converted to Flickr notes.

Linux has a number of options as well. For Gnome fans there's very slick "Desktop Flickr Organizer"<http://code.google.com/p/dfo/>, "Flickr Uploader"<http://micampe.it/projects/flickruploadr> is written in Python and will run in any window manager.

Those not enamored with desktop apps should have a look at the "Firefox Universal Uploader"<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4724> plug-in which creates a two-pane window in your browser and allows you to easily move files from your hard drive to any of the four supported photo sites.

Don't think you're limited to the PC when it comes to Flickr though, you can easily send photos straight from your camera-phone. Just fill in your e-mail address "here"<http://www.flickr.com/account/uploadbyemail/>. Use your phone to send photos from that address and they'll show up in your Flickrstream (note you may incur charges from your service provider depending on your plan).

The e-mail option also opens up an interesting hack that will let you use Google's free Picasa application to send your photos to Flickr via GMail. As of version 2.0 you e-mail directly from Picasa which will even automatically resize your photos before sending them. Just use the aforementioned e-mail address and send via GMail.

All these options let you add title, descriptions, tags and in some cases even Geo data, all from the comfort of your desktop or phone.


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Once your photos are in Flickr there's myriad of ways to show them off. Grab one of the handy widgets for your blog, MySpace, Facebook and more. 

But Flickr isn't limited to the web. You can print your images or "create business cards"<http://www.moo.com/flickr> from your photos, create "hardbound books"<http://www.blurb.com/partner/flickr/>, make t-shirts, "calendars"<http://www.qoop.com/photobooks/flickr_user>, buttons, bumber sticker, business cards, ties, you name it. "Zazzle"<http://www.zazzle.com/pn/flickr/home> can put your images on just about any surface your heart desires.

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Have fun.

Flickr's API has allowed people to create all sort of crazy useful and interesting tools, here's a few of our favorites:

"Flickr Set Manager"<http://www.dopiaza.org/flickr/setmgr/index.php> - This handy web-based tool allows you to create "smart" Flickr sets using a wide variety of critieria, very similar to smart playlists in iTunes.

Define your sets based on interestingness, date posted and tags, or even generate a completely random set images. There's even an option to automatically regenerate your set once a day

"Flickr Colr Pickr"<http://www.krazydad.com/colrpickr/> - Another web-based tool that lets you browse Flickr images by color. A great way to explore the site.

"Islands of Consciousness"<http://incubator.quasimondo.com/flash/islands_of_consciousness.php> - A collaberation between Mario Klingemann Oleg Marakov, Islands of Consciousness in an improve film created while you watch by pulling in Flickr images and setting them to Marakov's MP3 samples. A hypnotic way to waste those dull friday afternoons.