I was recently looking into creating an electronic photobook for family and in my search on Google I ran across Smilebox. Smilebox is an online service that is currently in beta (much like many of the services we love); the thing about Smilebox that caught my eye was that the templates that they offer are professionally created which means what I am creating will actually look good. Another pleasant surprise was that they don't only offer photobooks. They also offer:

* Scrapbooks

* Slideshows

* Greeting Cards

* Postcards

Your production can be printed and mailed or emailed in an electronic format if you want to take advantage of the music and motion offered in some of the designs.

This type of offering falls into a relatively new market space called Photo Expressions. This space meshes scrapbooking , egreetings and photo sharing with the potential for hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue per year.

Smilespace is described as follows:

Smilebox™ is an exciting new service that makes it easy for people to connect with friends and family in a more creative and compelling way. Unlike existing solutions that focus on organizing, editing and sharing photos or sending pre-packaged greetings, Smilebox enables users to create something truly powerful by choosing from hundreds of unique, multimedia designs, easily personalizing them with their photos, music, words and style and then sharing them via print or email.

Smilebox creates a new category of service called "creative messaging," which draws from related categories including photo services, scrapbooking and greetings; delivering a new medium for communication that is unparalleled in its ability to convey mood, thought and emotion.

In consumers' words, Smilebox makes it easy to be creative, it is a significant timesaver, is highly personalized and is an excellent value — There is nothing quite like it.

I think I agree with them, what they have to offer is pretty unique and I may have to give it ago since it's free.