Scott Lipsky wants to turn photo sharing on its head. The former aQuantive and Amazon.com executive is finally ready to share some of the details behind PhotoRocket, the stealthy Seattle startup that he's been quietly building for more than a year. The new service -- launching in an invitation-only format today -- provides a simple way for computer users to share photos with friends and family or post images directly to popular photo sharing sites such as Facebook and Shutterfly.

"Digital photography has been around for such a long time relative to the Internet, and sharing photos is still primarily being done with email," Lipsky tells TechFlash. "PhotoRocket is radically simple and radically different: When you think about photo sharing, we are not business as usual. You will no longer need to email photos or upload photos to a photo sharing site."

The service works like this: Users of Windows-based personal computers download the free PhotoRocket software. Then, with a simple right click, they will be able to select copies of photos to be shared with others via PhotoRocket.

"You select the share button, and you are done," Lipsky says. "You don't have to attach, resize, upload."

Recipients get an email in their inbox notifying them that photos have been shared via PhotoRocket, creating a one-stop online destination for all photos which have been shared with them via the service. That means if your mom, brother and best friend share photos from a recent reunion, vacation and wedding they will all populate your PhotoRocket page.

In that regard, the service works in the opposite manner of most photo sharing sites where the burden is on the photographer to upload the images to a personal page and then invite friends to view them.

"Every time you go to PhotoRocket.com all of your photos will just be there -- all of the photos you've received from me or anyone else," Lipsky said. "It is not an online album. It is your online photo inbox."

The service is only available for users of Windows-based PCs. But an iPhone application is coming later this month, with versions for Mac OS, iPad and Android also in the works. At this time, photos can only be shared to individual email addresses as well as Facebook and Shutterfly. But the company plans to integrate with other popular photo sharing services, including Flickr, in the near future.

No video is permitted to be shared at this time, though Lipsky said that's something they hope to introduce in the future.

"This is just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg in making photo sharing as easy as it should be," he said.

PhotoRocket plans to make money by allowing individuals to print copies of photos to posters, calendars, mugs and other merchandise. It is also considering a storage and archiving service at various levels.

The company employs 15 people, and continues to hire. It is led by Gary Roshak, the former Yahoo, Marchex and Mforma exec who was appointed CEO in July.

Lipsky, who co-founded aQuantive and was one of the earliest employees at Amazon.com, said they are not trying to replace services such as Shutterfly, Facebook and Flickr.

"This is to make sharing easier, however you want to do it and wherever you want the photos to go," Lipsky said.