Not all Web sites powered by HP's online photo service Snapfish can be accessed with the same registered e-mail address and password.
Users who have registered with U.S.-based Web photo-hosting portals powered by Snapfish--such as EarthLink Photo Center and Walmart's Digital Photo Center--can use the same login details to access the U.S.-based Snapfish portal. However, they cannot do the same for HP's localized sites outside the United States, including the recently launched Singapore site.
This is because the databases of these co-branded online photo service portals are not shared between HP and its partners, Freda Wang, Snapfish Singapore country manager, told ZDNet Asia Wednesday.
"Snapfish registered users can access their accounts from any Snapfish site around the world. However, if a user originally created an account with one of our co-brand partners, the user will typically be recognized as a co-brand partner customer in that country--[such as] EarthLink in the United States--and will be directed back to the co-brand partner site even if the user had logged into a Snapfish site in that country," Wang explained.
"If the user is a co-brand partner site customer, [the user] will not be able to log into a Snapfish site outside of that country, as this is part of an agreement with our co-brand partners," she added.
As such, these users will have to create a new account at a HP-operated Snapfish site and re-upload their photos to the account, if they want to use a single set of registered Snapfish e-mail address and password to access their stored images via any of HP's localized sites around the world.
For example, users who have registered their e-mail address and password with the Snapfish Singapore Web site will be able to login in to the Snapfish U.K. Web site--using the same login details--to access the photos uploaded onto the Snapfish Singapore site.
Having just one set of login details means users will not have to recreate a new account when they log into a different localized Snapfish site, and users can opt for prints to be made and delivered locally, according to HP.
According to Wang, Snapfish has co-brand partners in many countries, including the United States and Australia. For example, in March this year, Snapfish Australia teamed up with a local partner to launch Rabbit Photo, and Snapfish users in the country can also choose to collect uploaded photos from any of Rabbit's 70 stores in Australia.