When the Parent Bloggers Network asked if I wanted to review Kinzin, a photo sharing site, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I’ve been an avid flickr user since 2004. However, due to the icky, yucky people of the world, all of our photos except for select ones in a Project365 set have gone private. I’m selective about what I share and where for various reasons. I know I’m not the only one.

But truth be told? Some of my family members aren’t awesome at the internetz. No, really. Trust me on this one. Sometimes they forget to login and, as such, they can’t view the pictures. Then they call me to complain. It’s been an on-going drama for years now. Enter Kinzin.

It’s an easy, private photo sharing site that even my most technologically-dumb family members can navigate. I was easily able to share our account with them and they were easily able to register and view the pictures that we uploaded. Of course, it’s up to them to remember their login information. I don’t know why they expect me to remember passwords that they have forgotten. (Does anyone else have family like me? I mean, honestly?)

But, by far, the best part of the Kinzin site is their print and ship option. While the photo sharing service (meaning, the site in general) is free, the print and ship option does require a payment, but oh, it’s cheap! And cheap is good! For my US readers, you can have 10 prints (of your choosing or automatically selected) printed and shipped to one address for $2.99 a month. If you pick two addresses, you can actually get a third free! (For a limited time so jump on this one.) I cannot tell you how awesome this is for our family. Because despite being technologically impaired, my family tends to complain about the lack of pictures they receive (or, ya know, don’t receive) because, oh, well, I work from home full-time, have two children underfoot, one of whom is potty training and the other of whom is breastfed on demand, and you know, a never ending pile of laundry. I mean, shouldn’t I have all the time in the world to get professional portraits taken and shipped to said family members? Pfft. This has alleviated that problem. I take nice enough pictures that these can double as professional. Okay? Good.

Anyway, while I love it, I did find one problem with the printing service. I had accidentally, not understanding what it meant, selected “Include Title On Prints” option. In fact, at the time of my review, this option was rather hidden. I do NOT like the title on the prints. I mean, who wants words on their chin (see left). When I complained about said words on chin, I found out that they’re now working to make this option more visible along with a link to show you what the option actually entails and, of course, you are able to deselect it. Fabulous. My experience is now perfect.

The prints themselves are of a high quality, not unlike you get from any of your normal printing services.

I am pleased with my experience with Kinzin. I am also pleased that for an entire year, my mother and mother-in-law can get off my back about not receiving pictures even though they have full access to the full-sized pictures on flickr and could thus print them out themselves but, oh, technology. Thanks for saving my sanity, Kinzin! In fact, thanks for saving my Husband’s sanity as well as he always gets an earful when either party kvetches about the lack of pictures.

So, go create your free account and if you have family like mine, take advantage of the print and ship option!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 10:26 am and is filed under Product Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.