ProtectMyPhotos is a slick new online backup service that automatically syncs the photos on your computer with secure, offsite servers. Online backup isn't new or sexy but automatic backup that's secure and completely simple to set up and run? That's the new hotness.

Download a small application, tell it to either scan your whole system for photos or tell it which folders to scan and then let it run quietly in the background and do its thing. After the initial time consuming scan and uploading process ProtectMyPhotos unobtrusively makes sure the photos on your hard drive match the photos in your online backup. Add new photos? ProtectMyPhotos detects them and automatically uploads them to the datacenter. Delete some photos? ProtectMyPhotos let's you know about any discrepancy so you can make sure that what you deleted is what you actually want gone. It's very cool and very easy to use.

I keep mentioning the simple factor here because I'm thinking of getting my grandmother a subscription to ProtectMyPhotos for Christmas. My grandma loves digital photography and digital photos. When she thinks about her computer it's in terms of how many pictures she can get on it, how safe her photos are on it, how easily she can get to her photos on it, and how harshly she needs to warn the grandkids not to mess up her photos on it. A simple, automatic back up process would give her peace of mind and save me hours of DVD backup burning on visits. That's right, ProtectMyPhotos is so easy and painless to use I feel confident hooking my grandma up with it.

The free account allows unlimited backup of low res jpegs. The paid account is $49.95 per year and works with nearly every image format you can think of including RAW files. In addition the service is stretching the limits of its name by allowing you to back up video, mp3 and other audio files, office documents, and financial documents (Quicken, MS Money, etc). You can access your files from anywhere with a secure web based file browser and restore any lost files with a click.

Tags: photography, backup, ProtectMyPhotos, file backup, photo backup, data backup