ImageStation was Sony

Sony

, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

's official online photo sharing

Photo sharing

Photo sharing is the publishing or transfer of a user's digital photos online, thus enabling the user to share them with others . This function is provided through both websites and applications that facilitate the upload and display of images...

 and photo print service. ImageStation generated revenue by selling high quality digital prints

Digital printing

Digital printing refers to methods of printing from a digital based image directly to a variety of media. It usually refers to professional printing where small run jobs from desktop publishing and other digital sources are printed using large format and/or high volume laser or inkjet printers...

, as well as photo-related gifts such as photo books, mug

Mug

A mug is a sturdily built type of cup often used for drinking hot beverages, such as coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. Mugs, by definition, have handles and often hold a larger amount of fluid than other types of cup. Usually a mug holds approximately 12 fluid ounces of liquid; double a tea cup...

s, calendar

Calendar

A calendar is a system of organizing days for social, religious, commercial, or administrative purposes. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months, and years. The name given to each day is known as a date. Periods in a calendar are usually, though not...

s, greeting card

Greeting card

A greeting card is an illustrated, folded card featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas or other holidays, they are also sent to convey thanks or express other feeling. Greeting cards,...

s, and T-shirt

T-shirt

A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....

s. There were also several levels of membership available at different prices. The free basic account was only available to residents of the US or Canada.

ImageStation's back-end was powered by the following technologies:

• Apache Web Server
• mod perl
  Mod perl
  mod_perl is an optional module for the Apache HTTP server. It embeds a Perl interpreter into the Apache server, so that dynamic content produced by Perl scripts can be served in response to incoming requests, without the significant overhead of re-launching the Perl interpreter for each request...
  
   for core application logic
• HTML::Mason Template Engine
  Mason (Perl)
  HTML::Mason, or Mason for short, is a web application framework written in Perl. It is distributed on CPAN.Its features make it a suitable backend for high load sites serving dynamic content, such as online newspapers or database driven e-commerce sites. The author claims that several popular web...
  
  
• ImageMagick
  ImageMagick
  ImageMagick is an open source software suite for displaying, converting, and editing raster image files. It can read and write over 100 image file formats. ImageMagick is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.- Features and capabilities:...
  
   for image processing
• Oracle database
  Oracle database
  The Oracle Database is an object-relational database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation....
  
   with EMC
  EMC Corporation
  EMC Corporation , a Financial Times Global 500, Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, develops, delivers and supports information infrastructure and virtual infrastructure hardware, software, and services. EMC is headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, USA.Former Intel executive Richard Egan and his...
  
   storage and Relational Interface System
  Relational Interface System
  Relational Interface System is Intergraph Corporation's middleware for connecting client software and DBMS. Was developed for UNIX many years before ODBC and last years for Apple Macintosh and Windows computers....
  
   for other DBMS
• Isilon
  Isilon Systems
  Isilon Systems, a division of EMC, is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, USA and sells clustered storage systems and software for digital content and other unstructured data, which includes but is not limited to video, audio, digital images, computer models, PDF files, scanned information, and...
  
   for image storage (replacing old Rackable boxes)

As of February 1, 2008 the ImageStation online service is permanently closed. The announcement of the closure was issued on September 4, 2007. The reason for closure was listed on the Sony ImageStation web site as:

"Sony Electronics has decided to close ImageStation, its photo sharing service, in order to focus on the company’s core businesses, products, and services."

"In the early days of digital photography Sony realized the need to provide an online photo service to support their digital camera customers. In the years since, many capable online photo services have become available and our customers now have a broad range of options for storing, sharing, printing and creating photo gifts."

There is an automatic photo transfer offered to members at photo site Shutterfly

Shutterfly

Shutterfly is an Internet-based social expression and personal publishing service. Shutterfly's flagship product is its photo book line. It is based in Redwood City, California.-Features:...

.

E-mail addresses associated with ImageStation accounts have been verified to have been distributed to 3rd parties since the closure of ImageStation.