AOL Looks To Host Your Digital Media

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

September 18, 2007, 2:30 PM

AOL debuted a beta of BlueString on Tuesday, a new service which would allow consumers to upload and share digital media at no cost.

Each user would receive 5GB of online storage. They would eventually have the capability in the fall to link directly to video clips and photos from third-party services without the need to upload or move them to BlueString, AOL said. During the test, the company said it would allow users to connect to their Flickr accounts.

With the free version, users would be able to upload about 1,600 songs, 10,000 photos, or about 600 videos. The site would replace its AOL Pictures offering when it goes live officially sometime next year.

"BlueString offers a simple, one-stop solution for personal media storage and management," executive vice president Kevin Conroy said. "For the first time, we're making it possible for people to access, combine and share all of their personal media from a single application for free."

A feature called "String it" would allow several members of the service to collaborate on shows and upload media too them, much like the 'Sets' and 'Groups' work on Flickr. If users need more space, a premium option giving 50GB of space would be available for $99 per year.

The application itself its powered by Xdrive, the storage company that AOL bought in August 2005. In June of this year, the company made APIs of Xdrive available to developers so that they could use its storage capabilities in their own applications.