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Twitter taps Photobucket for native image sharing solution

June 2, 2011 — 10:15am ET | By Jason Ankeny

In the weeks ahead, Twitter will roll out photo upload features enabling consumers to attach images to tweets directly from the Twitter website--the solution will soon extend to the company's official mobile applications as well, with Twitter adding it is collaborating with mobile operators across the globe to introduce MMS-based photo sharing tools optimized for feature phones. Photos on Twitter will be tagged "Powered by Photobucket" and will link to pages allowing users to sign up for or sign in to their Photobucket accounts to edit, share or save their content.

Photobucket boasts 100 million users and over 8 billion uploads, with support for the mobile web as well as iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 operating systems. Last month Photobucket unveiled Snapbucket, which complements the company's existing mobile application by enabling consumers to personalize their snapshots via filters, effects, vignettes and frames similar to those offered by rival mobile apps like Instagram and Hipstamatic.

With the introduction of integrated photo-sharing services, Twitter goes head-to-head with rival solutions like Twitpic, Yfrog and Flickr, continuing its efforts to institute official branded applications in place of third-party apps. Twitpic founder Noah Everett tells TechCrunch that Twitter never approached his company to explore a possible partnership: "We understand that Twitter owns and controls the platform, but a clearer roadmap from them and better communication would have been appreciated by us and all the developers," Everett says. "We've always had Twitter's best interests in mind with building and running Twitpic. We would have hoped for the same from Twitter, at least in the form of better communication." Everett adds Twitpic will continue to operate as it always has.

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