14 DAY TRIAL // Photos are a big part of the Facebook experience and the photo sharing service is one of the most used features on the site. There are already a number of ways to upload those photos to the site either directly or from mobile devices or remote locations using MMS or Facebook apps for Blackberry, iPhone or other devices. And now the social networking site is adding a new option, allowing users to upload photos with email.
“[The personal upload email] is a unique email address where you can send photos and videos from anywhere you have email access,” Sameer Moidu, software engineer for the mobile team at Facebook, wrote. “After you attach your photos or videos to an email, you can include a subject line that will be used as the caption for the photos or videos you upload. If you're uploading more than one photo or video in the email, the captions will be the same for all of them. You can always edit the captions later by logging into your Facebook account.”
Facebook may be the largest social network in the world but its size allows it to compete in areas where it doesn't necessarily have a direct interest or presence in, like photo sharing. When you think of photo sharing services, names like Flickr, Picasa or Photobucket come to mind but, in actual numbers, Facebook is the biggest photo hosting and sharing service in the world with more than 10 billion photos uploaded and a significant advantage in the number of visitors. And this without even trying as Facebook's photo service isn't a separate product.
Flickr recently introduced a similar option, giving users a special email address to upload their photos to the site. Facebook doesn't have any limitation to the number of photos or videos you can upload with email but says that email providers may impose size and number restrictions. Files uploaded with email will go to the “Mobile Upload” album.