SmugMug

SmugMug
Type of site
 Image Hosting Service
Headquarters 67 E. Evelyn Ave, Suite 200
Mountain View, California, USA
Owner Chris and Don MacAskill
Website www.smugmug.com
Alexa rank Steady 1,551 (July 2016)[1]
Commercial Yes
Registration Not required for viewing
Launched 2002 (2002)
Current status Active

SmugMug is a paid photo-sharing website and image hosting service which allows users to upload both HD photos and videos to their SmugMug sites. Launched in 2002,[2] the company offers a toolset which facilitates the selling of digital and print media for amateur and professional photographers.[3]

History

SmugMug conference booth

SmugMug was founded by father and son Chris and Don MacAskill.

The company was started without any venture capital funding, and for a time was run out of the MacAskill family home. In a 2007 article, the LA Times wrote:

"They started on a shoestring budget in 2002, not moving into real offices in Mountain View, Calif., until April. Before that, the MacAskills and their employees set up shop in the five-bedroom home of Chris and his wife, Toni. Engineers bunked two to a bedroom. Blow dryers and vacuums routinely blew circuit breakers. Barking yellow Labrador retrievers chased tennis balls up and down the stairs."[2]

Features

SmugMug offers four different account levels, each with a different subset of features[3]

Storage

In 2010 two petabytes of photos were stored on the Amazon S3 service.[4]

Privacy and security

SmugMug has options to allow control over the privacy and security of published photos. They have support for both account-level and gallery-level passwords, as well as hidden galleries.

There is also a friends and family social networking interface for members of the service to use, which allows sharing of photos limited to people known to the publisher.

Professional services

In conjunction with their print service, SmugMug has created a service aimed at professional photographers. Professional accounts have the ability to add custom watermarks to their photos. They can also sell prints and digital downloads of their photos through the SmugMug interface with their own pricing.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Smugmug.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
  2. 1 2 "A focused family business". LA Times online. Retrieved December 24, 2007.
  3. 1 2 SmugMug. "Plans at a Glance". SmugMug.com. Retrieved December 7, 2013.
  4. ↑ MacAskill, Chris. "The Inspiring Story Of The Man Behind SmugMug And FatBrain – with Chris MacAskill".
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