Microsoft Commissioned a study to see how many professional photographers are using Mac over PC last year. The reason they did this was they were expanding the photo management of vista. What was funny is the number of Mac users was over 60%. I was taken back by that I was expecting maybe 20%.

The reason I mention this is I have been using Macs for years. I have used them mainly for photo and graphics editing. I recently became an independent contractor and decided I need a website and decent email system better than yahoo. So I look at different web solutions I look at one company called Live Books and they have real nice web solution for photographers but you are going to pay for it. You are looking at a $5000 set up and design fee.

I really did not have the time to start building my own site from scratch. I had iLife in my in Macs and started to pay with iWeb. I saw that I could now have a domain with .Mac so I decided to try it. I was impressed with in a day, I had my site up and running email going I could use my power book to make changes while was shooting on location. I ended up buying an iPhone and found it worked seamlessly with .Mac email. I started to use .Mac’s web gallery to show off work to clients while on location, then I start hitting the glass ceiling. .Mac does not track website stats, So I had to use a third party solution. I could not link animated gifs to a page. There iWeb is not set up for metatags. There were limitations on bandwith for uploading .Mac galleries or they would stop working for hours. .Mac support is weak at best.

I have been overall pleased with .Mac although I get some weird syncs with my iCal and Address Book. What I see is great potential for this stuff small business but it as if the Macs one button round hockey puck mouse mentality seems to creep in. I just get the sense Apple knows their is potential but has know idea which direction to go.