Smugmug Press Release

Smugmug Aims to Conquer the Earth… One Picture at a Time

“Travel and photos go together like peanut butter and jelly. Putting them together was a ‘No duh’ concept,” says Smugmug founder.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Smugmug Inc., the ultimate photo sharing site, has announced the launch of smugMaps – a feature that allows users to combine photos and maps with a click.

“If you’ve been there and done that, smugMaps let you prove it,” said Don McAskill, co-founder and Chief Geek, Smugmug Inc. “Bragging rights aside, it’s a great way to store your photos by location or let your friends and family experience your travels as though they were actually there.”

*How?
*Customers can enter an address for any photo or just click a spot on a map to link their pictures to any latitude and longitude on Earth. When friends visit their online albums, they click a map button to see stunning photos seamlessly integrated with scrollable, zoomable Google maps.

Photo-geeks who use handheld GPS (Global Positioning System) devices or GPS integrated cameras and camera phones to digitally tag their photos with precise location data will rejoice when they discover that Smugmug automatically reads it and instantly makes their photo galleries mappable.

*Why?
*After experiencing Google’s hot, new 3-D satellite imagery-based mapping, the Smugmug team decided that if a picture’s worth a thousand words, then pictures plus maps must equal 2,000, and save users a few words in the process.**

“We watched our customers typing awkward captions like, ‘about 18 miles south east from Canyon Creek, Washington, up some wicked cold river’,” explained cofounder Chris MacAskill. “They can skip that now, leaving only the good part: ‘I can’t believe I bungee jumped off that!’ “

*Where?
*1 Fans of adventure motorcyclist The Striking Viking, author of Two Wheels Through Terror, use smugMaps to follow The Viking on his world motorcycle tour.
2 New York photographers Andy Williams and Shay Stephens use smugMaps for their breathtaking online gallery, “Smugmug’s Eye on NYC.”
1 Members of the photo community Digital Grin compiled a gallery of their finest global photography to create a breathtaking galley entitled World Landmarks.
2 Smugmug itself hosts a snarky gallery called Rated and Located where they classify Silicon Valley companies as “The New Hotness,” “Business as Usual,” or “Old and Busted.” See where your favorite company (or stock) sits on the map or in the ranking.

*About Smugmug
*Smugmug, one of the fastest-growing photo sharing sites, hosts 32,000,000 photos from customers as diverse as grandmothers, senators, renowned photographers, and The Wall Street Journal. An unusual success story among Internet companies, Smugmug is family-owned, profitable and thriving. Smugmug was founded in 2002.