Why you might not want to store your photos on Facebook

Writing in yesterday's Washington Post, Caitlin McDevitt of "The Big Money" pointed out a few good reasons why Facebook isn't the best place to keep your pictures.

Excerpts from her article follow.

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Facebook doesn't have the capacity to store all the world's photos without shrinking them first. Facebook just announced that it will increase its maximum photo size by 20%. But even with the upgrade, the photo quality on Facebook isn't useful for more than onscreen viewing.

Chris Chute, a digital imaging research analyst at IDC, said that "720 pixels will provide for a richer photo experience online, but to create a 4x6 print would still require additional data."

It's also troubling that most users aren't aware that uploading a picture to Facebook — and then deleting it from your camera — means you've lost the original image for good.

... fewer than a third of people surveyed knew that photos on social-networking sites are stored at a decreased resolution. This is probably because Facebook photos look just fine on a computer screen. But when they are printed, the images cannot be cropped or enlarged without looking blurry.

Want to frame a 5x7 of the great group shot from the family vacation? Better not store it on Facebook. Looking forward to viewing your Facebook pictures on a high-definition television? Don't get too excited.