jAlbum and the social media hype

Let's move back to the years 2002-2004.

No Facebook. No Flickr. No Instagram. No Pinterest.
But guess what, there was something called jAlbum and a little green shy frog called Dor.

In fact, jAlbum was one of the most used solutions for creating photo websites and for sharing photos. Back then jAlbum was hyped and millions joined, most of them just because everyone else did.

Well (deep sigh...), then came Facebook, Flickr and other social platforms. jAlbum lost the social hype-game and its exponential growth, but at the same time learned an important lesson about what our green little friend Dor actually symbolizes. Today, there is an endless stream of social media platforms and the social media hype is greater than ever. Despite of this, jAlbum is growing, but this time not because of the hype.

However, once and a while we have our doubts and ask our selves: Does losing the social hype-game mean the concept of personal photo presentation is ready for the history books?
Not in a million years! First we read some of our amazing reviews from customers who think jAlbum is the best piece of software ever. Then we remind ourselves of the lesson we learned – Dor symbolizes freedom, that is the very foundation of jAlbum: Freedom of creation, freedom of publishing your creation anywhere, and maybe the most appealing freedom of all, nobody is in control of your creation and nobody is going to make any claims or tell you what to do. Your stuff is your stuff. Period.

We are all in favor of the new social media era, but if we lose our freedom, where will all the great new ideas and creations that form our dearest memories come from? For us behind jAlbum, our quest is to make sure freedom will always be part of our new world of social networks and infinite content distribution.

It's when the hype settles that you know what people truly value.

Dor, our once shy little green frog isn't so shy anymore (or so little). He is now confident that people choose jAlbum not because of the hype but because they share the same value of freedom with him.

/Jason McMillion

The story of our green frog
When David Ekholm (the founder of jAlbum) was 6 years old he got a frog hand doll that he named, Dor. Dor was the main character in the adventures of David's stories created by the uninhibited mind of a child – minds where true freedom still exists. This is the story of Dor and why he has always been the essence of jAlbum. You can check out some of David's stories about Dor in this album: The Adventures of Dor