Kinzin

Kinzin is a flavour of social networking site geared towards parents, specifically designed for photo sharing. I was provided one of the paid memberships to their site by the Parent Bloggers Network for review. Kinzin is available as a web application or as an add-in application to Facebook. My review will focus on the web application since that is what I activated.

Each member has, as part of the free service, a home page with status updates (similar to other social networking sites such as LinkedIn, myspace, or Facebook) for the kids, as well as the ability to create and store albums (complete with image titles, descriptions, and the means for other users to comment on the images). The external users are invitation-only, sent via email from within the Kinzin system. This feature was so secure that I was unable to use the link I sent to one invitee on a different computer than theirs. So, while this means your sister can't email her link to your cousin (and that you have to send a link yourself from within the system), it also provides the added comfort of knowing only those you invite will be able to view and/or comment.

To be honest, there were a couple things that I didn't like. One was the fact that right now the web application and the Facebook application cannot be merged or transferred (meaning that once I get my web app all set up, I can't add the Facebook application and automatically share my work with my FB friends). However, I believe this feature is planned for the future. My other pet peeve is the album editor: I just found it a little awkward to use for some functions, and think it could be better. I would also have liked the ability to retrieve the full-sized images from the system at a later date.

But the best feature of Kinzin, the feature that, at least for me, makes up for the above complaints, is the print mailing service. For a monthly fee, you can subscribe one or more addresses to a service that will print ten images from your account and mail them. The ten images can be the ten most recent additions, a random selection, or a manual list you compile yourself. This is a great feature for those of us (like me) who have parents who do not "do" digital. The packages are cleanly presented, and the prints are excellent on high quality paper (our first set came on Fuji paper). My parents and in-laws loved getting their first packages (we opted to keep it a surprise) and are excited at the prospect of a year's worth of grandkid photos.

Overall, the security and the print subscription service are the strong points of Kinzin. It's free to try, and if you like it, you can upgrade to a paid membership (to include the print feature).