Excite teams with Seattle FilmWorks

In a deal cut by the portal site today, Excite Communities members will be able to post photographs online each time they have their film developed by Seattle FilmWorks.

The deal is the latest in Excite's push to develop its network of communities since beta launching its communities service in August. Developed after the company acquired Throw this summer, Excite Communities are aimed not only at attracting new users, but also at giving them incentive to stay involved in those communities by offering Web real estate that can be customized. Members of each topic-specific community--which range from families to adult entertainment--can chat, or post messages, links, and pictures.

Other portals also have touted online communities. Most notably, Excite archrival Yahoo rolled out an offering similar to Excite's called Yahoo Clubs, just one day after Excite Communities was launched. Lycos also has heavily touted community, with its acquisition of home page builders Tripod and Angelfire.

With today's announcement, Excite Communities members who send film to Seattle Filmworks to be developed will have their pictures scanned and then archived on a separate site. Community members then can paste their archived photos onto a community photo album.

Members still can scan and post pictures onto their sites on their own, but today's deal is designed to expedite and simplify that process, according to an Excite statement.

Excite joins other Internet companies that have inked deals with an eye toward increased use of Web-based pictures. In May, for example, America Online signed a deal for Eastman Kodak to distribute pictures online. That partnership allows AOL members to give their screen names to photo developing companies and have their pictures delivered online.