Given the rising popularity of social media services, it’s not uncommon for someone to have their photos scattered across a handful of sites, like Facebook, Flickr, or a personal blog. Unfortunately, adding new media to these services can be a pain - most people find themselves picking and choosing where to upload their photos rather than taking the time to create new albums across all of their online presences.

San Francisco-based PixelPipe is looking to solve this problem by offering a personal syndication service that is akin to a Ping.fm for media. After entering credentials for any of the site’s 50+ supported services, PixelPipe will automatically distribute any new audio files or images to all of your profiles. You can also choose to group these services by tags, so you can be more selective (for example, I could use a tag to upload a set of images to Pownce and Friendfeed, but not my blog).

While PixelPipe supports many of the most popular media sites (as well as blog platforms), CEO Brett Butterfield says that it is also aiming for a more global approach, and will begin to integrate a number of smaller and more local services.

The site offers a standard web upload interface, as well as an array of native clients and plugins for Mac, Windows, and Linux, including a modified version of the open-source Flickr uploader, an iPhoto plugin, and an iPhone client. There are also more generic upload methods, like a personalized email address (I was assigned the curious name of gangrening128).

PixelPipe is offering a powerful and useful service, though its lifespan may be limited. At some point, these media services will begin to adopt more open policies, allowing users to transfer photo albums and their corresponding metadata (like tags), without having to turn to a third party. But this may still be years off, and for the time being, PixelPipe is worthwhile solution.

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