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March 26, 2008

FotoFlexer Tries To Take On Picnik With a New Look

Erick Schonfeld

20 comments »

fotoflexer-screen-small.pngAs consumer applications continue to migrate from the desktop to the Webtop, one of the most advanced areas where this trend is taking hold is in photo-editing software. Desktop editing apps like iPhoto, Picassa and even Photoshop are giving way to Web-based apps like FotoFlexer and Picnik (and many more).

And the Webtop photo editors just keep getting better. Today, FotoFlexer released a completely revamped user interface, making it simpler and more intuitive. FotoFlexer also added a bunch of effects, such as the ability to type directly onto a photo, add animations, and choose from more frames. Once you finish tweaking your photos, they can be posted all over the Web (Photobucket, Facebook, Flickr, SmugMug, etc.)

I made the image above in about 30 seconds. (You can play with it here). The tabbed UI is really easy to use, and there seems to be a lot of effects and layers that you can add. I am not so crazy about the animations, but I think those are supposed to appeal more to young girls. All in all, though, the functionality that is available for a Webtop app is pretty impressive and the new features and functionality should make it much more competitive with Picnik. Which one you use now is really just a matter of personal preference. (FotoFlexer is more tightly integrated with Photobucket, Picnik is baked into Flickr). I like Picnik. Mike prefers FotoFlexer. But as the traffic graph below shows, more people agree with me.

The fact is that FotoFlexer is getting trounced by Picnik. According to comScore, FotoFlexer only had 396,000 unique visitors worldwide in February, compared to 966,000 for Picnik. This new UI could help it turn things around. And just in time too, because a big new entrant to the Webtop photo-editing game is debuting tomorrow (more on that later).

fotoflexer-vs-picnik-chart.png

CrunchBase Information
FotoFlexer
Picnik
Pixenate
Information provided by CrunchBase
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 7:36 am and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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Comments

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  1. Simplebucket

    March 26th, 2008 at 7:44 am

    Things may change very fast with Fotoflexer, Fotoflexer JUST GOT integrated into their Photobucket, so we may see a change in direction for Fotoflexer’s traffic in the coming months, it’s irrelevant looking at Compete’s history till Feb.

    We’re considering going with Fotoflexer for our upcoming feature as well ;)

    Team Simplebucket
    http://www.simplebucket.com

  2. Face of the Day

    March 26th, 2008 at 7:52 am

    I think this will be very useful for my site as well as my pretty models

    http://faceoftheday.blogspot.com

  3. Matt

    March 26th, 2008 at 8:00 am

    I want to pre-empt the trolls for Ericks sake… great post, btw, man.

    Now he said “even photoshop” and i can already hear it now… all the people are going to accuse Erick of being ignorant and this and that and “do you even know what photoshop is capable of??” etc. etc. etc… FACT: Erick was right. People have, for years, used (and paid for even) Photoshop when all their routine requires is the most basic of tools that simply weren’t available on other programs like MS Paint. These spiffy online image editors are stealing a LOT of casual users away from photoshop. With these apps we can quickly and easily make basic image edits and effects that, by and large, cuts HUGE into a very vast Photoshop market…. hardcore PS users will not be switching away,obviously… and Erick never said they would… but he did point out a fact that these Apps are stepping into PS territory…. so let’s spare everyone the Photoshop flame war, k?

  4. SearcH◆ EngineS WEB

    March 26th, 2008 at 8:12 am

    FotoFlexer is impressive.

    What is so surprising is how inferior the online version of photoshop is compared to FotoFlexer and a few others

    Here are lists of the best of them

    http://blogoscoped.com/forum/100335.html

    http://www.blogoscoped.com/forum/107876.html

  5. Mike Masterson

    March 26th, 2008 at 8:37 am

    good news eh
    http://www.otmp3.com

  6. ian

    March 26th, 2008 at 8:46 am

    I’m not sure you can compare these kind of tools to the amount of options available in photoshop/paint shop pro. There’s always going to be a limit to the web when it comes to processing power.

  7. More Profitable than Justin.tv

    March 26th, 2008 at 9:07 am

    Looks like fun. I’m going to photoflex one of the virtual makeovers I did last week ;)

  8. gregory

    March 26th, 2008 at 9:11 am

    As consumer applications continue to migrate from the desktop to the Webtop…. the net slows down

    anybody notice that?

  9. Gabriel

    March 26th, 2008 at 9:31 am

    Do the statistics you show include the number of times people use the service whilst integrated in Flickr or Photobucket, or is it just direct visits to the websites themselves?

  10. Tekin Tatar

    March 26th, 2008 at 10:09 am

    Erick,

    Besides comscore, I would like to point out different statistics. TechCrunch has 4 standalone posts about Fotoflexer with this one. The others were in this month again, August-07 and October-07. Now if you compare these dates with comscore stats there is a significant correlation.

    I know Alexa is not reliable but compare the traffic there too. You will see the correlation.

    Cheers

  11. Gabe

    March 26th, 2008 at 10:30 am

    Erick - TC reported the FotoFlexer/PhotoBucket integration on March 5th…

    So those numbers aren’t even included there since you only reported Feb. numbers. But Picnik already had Flickr….

    This isn’t apples to apples at all. I’m disappointed in the obvious bias here. Of course thats beginning to be expected on TC isn’t it.

  12. David Hersh

    March 26th, 2008 at 11:43 am

    Out of curiosity, when people use these online photo editors, what happens to the “master” copy of the photo that resides on their PC? Are people OK with it remaining out of sync with the newly edited version online? Do people download the edited version to their PCs?

  13. yonita

    March 26th, 2008 at 11:59 am

    i LOVE Picnik! Why didn’t you link to it in your article, FotoFlexer got all the love!

    “I like Picnik. Mike prefers FotoFlexer. “

  14. Kevin Allman

    March 26th, 2008 at 12:06 pm

    fotoflexer is gr8..i luv anything that can be done entirely online so i may be biased…

    now…where is the Operating system for the internet….lets all just boot up a shell that connects to a web app =]

  15. Emma

    March 26th, 2008 at 1:53 pm

    “Desktop editing apps like iPhoto, Picassa and even Photoshop are giving way to Web-based apps like FotoFlexer and Picnik (and many more).”

    and the evidence for this is what exactly? thought so!

  16. Steve

    March 26th, 2008 at 7:54 pm

    Thanks, I might give those a try. Are they all free? I tried piccyfix.com to edit a dark image: http://www.olddominionwildlife.....ld-turkey/

  17. zach stevens

    March 26th, 2008 at 8:30 pm

    Hi Erick, Zach here from Fotoflexer. A few comments: RIAs are notoriously difficult to measure using tools like comScore; our uniques are about 3X what you report with a sharp upward trend; fotoflexer is editing more than 1 million pictures a day; and, as someone said, we just got integrated with Photobucket.

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