Any recommendations for baby scrapbooking site?

September 12, 2008 11:30 AM

Baby's online presence/scrapbook. Any recommendations for a site to keep family and friends informed while also archiving baby's early life?

NYT had a story yesterday on different baby content management systems.

We'd want one that integrates with Flickr if possible, allows for photo and video uploads, and has privacy settings so only family and friends can view it. If it had RSS feeds or something so that we could do blog posts in Facebook that'd be cool too.

TotSpot looks to be the best right now, but any recommendations from MeFites would be welcome.

And yes, we know that we could do this with ease with a blog or Vox or whatever... but I imagine that some of these sites have cool features that wouldn't be available as a WordPress plug-in or something.

posted by k8t to technology (11 comments total)

My wife uses Shutterfly.com and loves it. No RSS that I am aware of, but the photo sorting/printing/scrapbooking is excellent. We've ordered hard prints of their scrapbooks as well and were very pleased.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 11:34 AM on September 12, 2008

I should add

1 - We want not only photos and video to be available, but also to be able to blog things like what baby is doing developmentally, etc. and I like TotSpot's Twitter-esque feature.

2 - This is why we're looking specifically at the baby-specific sites.

3 - I HATE having to make people register (a la Shutterfly!), but I realize that for privacy's sake it needs to be done.
posted by k8t at 11:38 AM on September 12, 2008

Picasa is great. I'm really, really glad you're making this private. As with all things, try to imagine what he/she will think of this being up and (presumably) available in 18 years when potential employers, boy/girlfriends, etc can google his/her name and see his/her Totspot updates.
posted by arnicae at 11:47 AM on September 12, 2008

And to add again, we already use Flickr and love it. We're looking for a baby-specific blogging/content management site that will hopefully allow us to port pictures from Flickr.
posted by k8t at 11:52 AM on September 12, 2008

I'm sure Anil will be along in a moment to confirm, but this sounds like just the sort of thing Vox is good for.
posted by jjg at 12:06 PM on September 12, 2008

Crap, missed your Vox reference in the post. Never mind.
posted by jjg at 12:11 PM on September 12, 2008

I used Tumblr. Did audio, pictures, links, quotes, and blog entries. Didn't try the video.

Worked great - A++
posted by unixrat at 1:24 PM on September 12, 2008

I just use a WordPress install with a photo-blog template. It works great but I'm not seeking loads of functionality, either. When baby is a little girl and wants her own blog I'll convert it over to a real blog/site and teach her how to use Movable Type 15.5 (what version number would it be in about 10 years?).
posted by camworld at 2:29 PM on September 12, 2008

You mentioned that you're not really hot to start a blog because of the cool features that might be found with baby-specific sites. Can you think of anything specific that you wouldn't get from a blog?

I ask because TypePad hits every one of your criteria - it's easy to blog photos and video from Flickr, you can insert photos into posts or Photo Albums in about two seconds, video uploads are totally supported if you wanted to host them on your TypePad account, and Password Protection is also a snap (no one would have to register, either - you'd just give the secure login info to specific people).

There are also some baby-centric layouts available, if you're into that, and you can continue the blog for as long as you want to beyond babyhood - see the incredible longevity of a lot of parenting blogs today that started out when baby was a newborn.

Full disclosure - I work for Six Apart, but I really do think that TypePad nails it. MeMail me if you want any other information (or a discount - I can toss one your way if you want to sign up and check it out).
posted by mewithoutyou at 6:44 PM on September 12, 2008

TotSpot has all sorts of neat baby-related stuff though - you input baby's height and weight and it does a growth chart and there is a timeline of baby's first X, Y, and Z.

It loads photos from Flickr, Picasa, and other popular photo sharing sites.
posted by k8t at 6:48 PM on September 12, 2008

What about kinzin? It integrates with Facebook but I'm not sure about Flickr...
posted by sanitycheck at 6:56 PM on September 12, 2008