Image Sharing Websites

By Monty, published Dec 11, 2006

Upload Images and Hotlink Them to Your Blogs, Forums or EBay Auctions

There are actually 2 kinds of websites
1. Websites for image sharing
2. Websites for digital photos sharing.

You may think that both of these sound to be same. What is the difference? The difference is in their intended use. Image sharing sites are used to post your images, avatars, signatures and later hot linking them in your blogs, forums and posts (Hot linking is embedding an image into a message board, personal webpage, or eBay auction). Digital photo sharing sites are primarily used for uploading your digital photos and sharing them with your friends. So, these provide features like creating albums, ordering prints etc. Many sites are nowadays serving both the purposes, but the best ones out there are those that address just one of these 2 needs. 

I will cover the popular image sharing sites in this article, and would try to come up with a list of free photos sharing site in next one.

1. ImageShack: This is the most popular image sharing site out there, and has tons of registered members. If you are looking at some blog or forum, and you see some embedded image, it is very likely that it is hot linked to ImageShack. ImageShack is a free image hosting solution. It can be used to share pictures with friends, as well as post images on message boards and blogs. It can also be used to direct link images from your personal website or online auction. And best of all, it's completely free.

Advantages:
• You can upload as many images as you want.
• It provides option to use clickable thumbnails on websites to reduce page size.
• Multiple Image Upload is available via the ImageShack Toolbar
• You may upload .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .bmp, .tif, .tiff, .swf, and .png image types
• It also provides a tool called ImageShack QuickShot integrates with Windows XP, 2000, or 2003 and allows you to take a screenshot and upload it to ImageShack with the press of a key!
• ImageShack strives to be completely non-intrusive, which means that ImageShack will not alter your uploaded images in any way. ImageShack will not add watermarks to your image, nor will it compress the images that you upload.
• Your images will be available forever.
• ImageShack offers the best reliability and privacy protection. Your images are available only to you, and to those people with whom you share your image locations. Using intuitive techniques, ImageShack guarantees your privacy. Three random characters (i.e. "2ct")are added to the end of each image. A 4-digit subdirectory, based on the image name, is also created. These security measures ensure maximum security, the prevention of image leeching, and the protection of your image locations.

Disadvantages:
• Each image you upload must be less than 1.5 megabytes in size. If it is greater than that amount, your image will be resized.

2. HeresMyImage: This is another small and nice image sharing site. This is free image hosting. You click the browse button, select a picture on your computer, and click upload. The website store your image online, give you a URL you can access it at, share it with friends, and post it on forums. Yes, it's 100% free.

Advantages:
• You do not have to register to use this service.
• You can upload bmp,gif,jpg,png images
• As with other sites, this site is also 100% free to use.

Disadvantages:
• Your images should have the correct extensions, and the filenames should not include spaces or invalid characters
• It does not support other popular formats such as tiff and png.
• Maximum size supported is 1.5 MB
• Images can be deleted by website after 60 days.

3. TheImageHosting: "The Image Hosting" is a free image hosting solution that can be used to share pictures with friends, post images on message boards and blogs, and direct link images from your personal website or online auction (hot linking allowed free). It generates thumbnails for photos that are larger than 200x200 pixels in resolution. You can use the service without a registration. Just upload your pictures from the main page and remember the links. You will have to keep the URL's by yourself as there will be no way that you obtain the same URL at a later moment.

Advantages:
• No registration required.
• Images are not deleted due to inactivity.
• You can upload as many images as you want.
• It allows .jpg, .jpeg .gif, .png, .swf (Flash files) formats. 

Disadvantages:
• Image size has to be less than 1 MB
• Formats like bmp and tiff are not supported.
• TheImageHosting does not generate thumbs for images that are 200x200 pixels in resolution or less.

4. PicTiger: PicTiger is a FREE image hosting service where eveyone is able to upload their own image, create a thumbnail from it, resize the image or the thumbnail, create their own albums, post their images to their sites, forums, blogs or anywhere they want. This site offers various ways to upload your image, you can browse and choose an image from your computer or you can upload an image from an URL poiting to it. If you want to upload more than one image, use their Multi upload function.

Advantages:
• Fast and easy image uploading
• You can upload multiple images simultaneously.
• You can upload from a link, or browse directly from your computer.
• You can edit file names and descriptions.
• You can Crop/Resize/Delete the images you have uploaded.
• Comment your pictures

Disadvantages:
• Maximum allowed file size is 1 MB.
• If the image is not active for more than 3 months, it will be deleted.
• Popular formats like bmp and tiff are not supported.

5. ImageBee: Image Bee is an easy-to-use free imagehosting services. It is completely clutter free. It does not requires registration. In fact, it does not even provide an option for registration. It lets visitors upload images anonymously to share with others, or hotlink pictures and photos on social networking sites, online auctions, blogs, forums, and other web sites.

Advantages:
• It allows upload of images upto 2 MB in size.
• It allows jpg, png, and gif file extensions.
• It also provides a mini upload module that you can integrate with your website.
•
Disadvantages:
• Other popular formats like bmp, tiff and swf are not supported.
• Monthly bandwidth per image is limited to 500 MB.
• If the image is not active for more than 3 months, it will be deleted.
• Does not provide any registration option for your online image management.

All the above sites are nice and easy to use. And most importantly, they are free. Some of them provide paid option also for advanced services and heavy image uploading. Try them out. Your image sharing is just a click away.