New Web Photo Print Service Already Has Favorable Image

When the founder of three high-tech heavyweights--Silicon Graphics, Netscape Communications and Healtheon--speaks, Silicon Valley listens. That’s why Jim Clark’s latest new new thing, Web-based photo processor Shutterfly.com (which he serves as chairman) has been generating buzz in an already-crowded market.

The Redwood Shores, Calif.-based start-up launches its service today, converting mediocre-quality images captured by digital cameras into high-quality photographic prints for about the same price that brick-and-mortar one-hour developers charge to process standard film.

Unlike most Web start-ups, Shutterfly.com’s business model is strictly fee-for-service, rather than based on maximizing page views from surfers to boost advertising. “We’re not interested in eyeballs,” Chief Executive Jayne Spiegelman said. “We just want to print.”

Shutterfly will use custom technology to profile every digital camera’s particular abilities with the aim of improving print quality, including the removal of “red eye” from snapshots.

Analyst Paul Worthington of the industry publication Future Image gave Shutterfly high marks, which it will need competing against large companies such as Seattle Filmworks and another start-up, PhotoAccess.com, based in Mountain View, Calif.

“What struck me about Shutterfly were two things,” said Geoffrey Bock, an analyst with Patricia Seybold Group in Boston, “the absolute elegance of the enabling technology and the quality of the photographs that you get.”