When Apple first introduced native Flickr uploading to iPhoto ‘09 in January, users were cautiously optimistic. As it turns out, the feature ended up being both a curse and a blessing: the built-in support for uploading to the popular photo sharing site was very convenient, but for those of us who were previously using third-party software to serve the same purpose, Apple’s implementation was somewhat lacking.

Why do we say that? There are a few reasons. For one, iPhoto ‘09 can’t download a list of sets you already have on Flickr, meaning that you can’t easily add photos from iPhoto into an already-existing set that you didn’t create within iPhoto. Moreover, you can’t just upload photos straight into your Flickr stream without a set—iPhoto will make you one whether you like it or not. iPhoto also doesn’t allow you to tag your photos, so you can have a hard time if you decide to re-name a set. It offers extremely basic functionality—permissions and resizing—and that’s pretty much it. Enough to get by, but not enough to make us happy.

But because there are throngs of new Mac (and Flickr) users joining the ranks every day, not everyone is aware that there are other alternatives out there to make up for Apple’s shortcomings in the direct-to-Flickr department. And at this time of year, people have plenty of photos to share with friends and loved ones. For these reasons, we thought we would give a rundown of some third-party options that do the same or more than what Apple gives us in iPhoto ‘09.