Breeze Newspapers unveils its newly upgraded CU site, which improves on the original features of the popular photograph sharing site.

The CU section of Breeze Newspapers’ Web sites was introduced to readers a few years ago as a way for professional photographers to share their work with the community, and the for the community to upload their photographs to share with other residents on-line.

Taking and sharing photographs has always been an important part of a newspaper’s duties to chronicle the life and events of a community, but with new upgrades to the old site, this process will be easier than ever.

“We live in an era that is visual by nature and photographs are important for us to see and share,” said Jack Glarrow, publisher of Breeze Newspapers. “It should make it easier to use and understand.”

The CU site has collected thousands of pictures since it was first launched. It has likely grown to be one of the largest collections of photographs from Southwest Florida anywhere on the Web.

Pine Island Eagle’s CU site (cu.pineisland-eagle.com) has two sections. One, the You CU site, contains photographs uploaded from the community, while the We CU section has photographs uploaded by newspaper staff.

Photographs can be purchased online through the site, along with products such as sports posters, mouse pads, puzzles, coffee mugs, magnets, sports balls, regular prints and more.

Some of the new improvements include:

— Improved search capabilities

— Ability to share galleries and photographs on social networking sites like Facebook or Twitter

— Improved My CU section

— Ability to easily add tags and captions

— Improved mobile program

— Ability to rate galleries and photographs

— Improved navigation and viewing options

— And overall, the new CU is faster