So, I’ve been using Singapore for the last few years to manage my photos, and it’s alright–not too horrible, it’s free, it does a pretty good job, has a couple of template options, etc. However, I really would like something that would let me tie into WordPress better. To Singapore’s credit, they do allow for this by providing an easy way to do this with the external template. And I’ve used this method to fit it into my site, and it looks moderately good.

The one thing I’d REALLY like to be able to do is for the WordPress search to also search my photos–so that a search on my site would be all-encompassing, not just just a search of my blog. This doesn’t happen with this Singapore integration. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure that this won’t happen with any photo/gallery plugin, etc., which means that I’m going to have to try to get htdig running on my site and use it instead of the built-in search. Ick and dangit. Anyone have a better way around this? Or does anyone have any experience in replacing the built-in WordPress search with htdig?

But there’s always something cool about trying new stuff out. And in this case, that new stuff is Flickr.

I’ve heard about it and seen other people using it, but never looked that much at it, but lately I’ve been looking closer at it, and I’m pretty impressed!! Their free service allows you to upload 20 megs of photos per month, and they have some really nice features, like their Flash-based photo organizer, tags, communities, etc. And the fact that you can upload your pictures via e-mail is way cool, being that I refuse to run Windows, and can’t afford to run Mac. (They do provide a Windows-based upload tool that I downloaded and I’m going to see if I can get it to run in Wine).

But the 2 uber-cool features that finally got me motivated enough to play with Flickr are:

1. Automatic creation of blog entries on one or more of your selection of blogs, and they work with all the popular ones too, including WordPress, which is what I use.
2. A really cool Flickr plugin for WordPress!! I’ve gotten it installed and working, thanks to some help by several sources in getting it to work specifically with WordPress 1.5 (by the way, WordPress 1.5.1.2 is out, surprise!).

So anyway, I think I’ll start uploading all of my old photos to my Flickr account (might take me a little while, since I have 34 megs in Singapore currently, and I can only upload 20 megs per month). Also, I have more than 200 photos in Singapore currently, and I’m not sure if I want to pay $24.95 per year just so that all of my photos will be visible on Flickr. Maybe I’ll just not upload all of my photos, though that kind of sucks. So, if anyone is wondering what to get me for *checking calendar*… an early birthday or Christmas present, a Flickr pro upgrade would fit the bill nicely. =;)