Facebook is definitely looking to be taken more seriously when it comes to sharing photos online. The best way to do that is to complete revamp the photo experience on Facebook. That's exactly what they are doing tonight. In short, the new features to Photos will include the ability for great high resolution photos, the ability to download those high resolution photos, bulk tagging, and what will be most noticeable: the lightbox.



First on the list is high resolution photos. You can now upload photos up to 2048 pixels either wide or high. That's eight times larger than Facebook's current offering. Then just click the Download link to get downloading. I have to point out though, Facebook may run into some privacy concerns with that. In my opinion, the Download link should only appear for a user that has uploaded that particular photo.

The next biggy is the lightbox photo viewer. Just click any photo you might see almost anywhere on Facebook and a pop-up window will appear with that photo, photo information, comments, and a small ad on the right -- a small price to pay for larger photos and an overall better experience. That said, Facebook ads aren't nearly as distracting as AdSense banner ads. Plus, viewing photos are said to be much snappier.

Lastly, the new photo uploader (yes, it's back) will allow you to choose between standard and high-res quality. Plus, it will enable you to tag the same people in multiple photos much quicker. All of these changes will begin rolling out today.

Update (2/10/11): It warms my heart to inform you that over four months later, Facebook has finally decided to finish the roll out of the new photo viewer. In a blog post, they state that all users will have these new photo features within the next few weeks.