Need help with JPG metadata

[hourglass]

Okay, so I tried to upload an image to photobucket yesterday. Everything was going fine until I had to realize that once on photobucket's server, the colors of my image looked not at all like the ones of my local copy anymore. Finally it occured to me that in fact photobucket was using the colors of the very original file, as if I had never done anything to it. And after having done some research, I came to the conclusion that all the adjustments where actually not written to the image itself, but to the metadata section, which photobucket apparently doesn't use for displaying the image.

Actually, I tend to think that I generally don't like the idea that my pictures can be "traced back" at any time, and I certainly don't feel any need for nondestructive editing (that's what it's called, right?) when I have at least one backup of each file somewhere else anyway and at the same time certain programs can't display my pic as intended. So here is my question: can anyone tell me how to alter a JPG with Photoshop, Camera Raw and/or Lightroom without preserving the orignal image - so that I end up with just one "flat" picture, of which the colors don't depend on the metadata?

I thought that finding an answer for this should be an easy task for Google, but I really couldn't find a solution (maybe I just don't know the right keywords).:scratch:

 

[EricBrian]

Nah, you probably just uploaded the wrong image.

 

[hourglass]

Thanks for your reply, but I definitely didn't upload my backup copy.
Anyway, here is the pic:

However, I have just found out that if instead of just judging by the representation in my web brower(s) I download the file to my desktop, it looks fine again. I'll have to rethink the whole issue, I guess. :study:

Edit:
This is what I want it to look like:

It's simply a cropped screenshot of Windows Vista Photo Gallery showing me the local copy, and in this case everything is fine, also via browser.

This is literally driving me crazy. Maybe I already I am and that's why.

 

[*Mike*]

I have just found out that if instead of just judging by the representation in my web brower(s) I download the file to my desktop, it looks fine again. I'll have to rethink the whole issue, I guess. :study:

This is a huge indication that it's a color space issue. Make sure that anything you upload for use in browsers is in sRGB.

 

[hourglass]

Thank you so much, I think that's it:

As it seems, I got lost in time and color space. And please don't tell anybody about my metadata-theory, okay?