Here is a sampling of free image hosts to use for sharing your pics with the rest of us. Please note, some of these services do not allow for downloads. You may like that option, but if you are using it for your Gallery page l.i.n.k., those sites (such as Webshots) will not allow us to snag a picture from your album. We strongly recommend PhotoBucket, as it seems to be very user-friendly and has very good options (including video) -- Peggy

PhotoBucket - Free image hosting for ebay, message boards, online photo albums, etc. Upload, categorize, add titles and delete images as needed. Direct linking is allowed, and there are tutorials for directlinking images. You can upload up to 20 pictures at once, or use an XP registry patch to allow use of MS Publisher. Photos larger than 1 MB are automatically scaled down. Their BucketStamp is a form of photo Gallery for your pictures. Limitations: 1 GB total space, 10 GB/month bandwidth, 1MB (1024KB) file size limit, no software downloded needed. File types: .jpg, .png, .gif, .bmp, .swf (Flash files), uploader converts bmp and tif to jpg. Image names must contain numbers and letters only. You can view the most recently uploaded pictures. Also now Features Section free video hosting -- users can upload, share, and publish video clips up to 3 minutes long and 100 MB filesize free. .... seems one of the best.

Flickr - Free hosting, allows uploading 100MB worth of photos each calendar month. Photos stay 'forever' unless inactive for 90 consecutive days, when it will be deleted, but only allows a max of the newest 200 photos displayed at any time. Provides a range of software uploading tools for both Windows and Mac, or you can use a web form to upload up to six photos at a time. .... Seems pretty complicated to tweak all the possible controls, and as of March '07 requires Yahoo! ID to sign in

ImageShack - Free web hosting for images with direct (hotlinking) linking allowed. It can also be used to direct link images from your personal website or eBay auction. No signup required, but possible and provides better tracking. Limitations: File size limit 1.5 MB per image; File types allowed: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, bmp, tif, tiff, swf (Flash). Their FAQ states that the freely hosted images will not be deleted from their hosting servers unless the image files violate their Terms of Service (TOS). Unlimited space ..... Requires a browser toolbar to get all the features.


GigaFiles - Free filehosting services with 5GB storage disk space, 1GB monthly bandwidth, and 50MB maximum file size. Registration is required to use the free file hosting service, and has instant activation. [web based uploads] Filetypes allowed: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, bmp, txt, pdf, zip, rar, avi, mpg, ppt, tar, mov, tif, tiff. Hotlinking images is allowed (direct linking the images). Upload multiple files at a time with a .zip file, and resize your hosted images online after they are uploaded, and delete or rename them. Your image file folders can be made to be public or private access. .... uploading is confusing; must be accessed [log-in] at least every 60 days or files are deleted

TheImageHosting - A free image host used to share pictures ,hot linking allowed. Generates thumbnails for photos that are larger than 200x200 pixels in resolution. Registration is required to use the service. Limitations: You may upload as many images as you like, as long as each of them is less than 1024 kb (1 MB) in size, unlimited images, unlimited online albums. File types allowed: .jpg, .jpeg .gif, .png, .swf (Flash files); You are not allowed to hot link fullsize images on any large-scale, non-forum websites [commercial]. No images will be deleted for inactivity. No info on uploading, but seems to be web based, not downloaded software.

Webshots - Free host with your own "homepage" and multiple albums, storing up to 1000 photos + 100 more for each month of membership. Paid mambership gives ad free pages and other benifits, like up to 5000 photos + 500 more per month ... doing the uploads requires downloading software which also includes free desktop photos. No info found on how long photos are held or need for activity, but appears to be open ended. .... in addition to the software download and many adverts on free accounts, there now seems to be download restrictions that prevent the public from saving images and the latest version of Flash they're using doesn't work with all browsers

Picasa.google - Free image host, 250MB of free storage, requiring Windows XP or Windows 2000 [NO Win ME or 98], MSIE 6, MS DirectX 7+, and up to 100MB of hard disk space. Requires installed software. Image types: jpg, bmp, gif, png, psd, tif - Movies: avi, mpg, wmv, asf, mov (QuickTime). Requires downloading and installing software that thinks it should be your "organize and edit" application in order to upload images. Compatible only with Windows Vista and XP, although they seem to have a Mac uploader
"Microsoft wants you to think Windows is computing, Google wants you to think google is the internet"
don't be "googled"

Village Photo - Free hosting of images [max size 250K] to a max of 50MB. Has both in-browser software ["toolbar"] and HTTP web-page uploading. The whole range of Features Section available only when upgraded to paid account. .... There are better places that provide more space :blat:

there are a lot more out there, but these seem to be the most dependable and provide the best plans

Red58 - Thanks for posting your efforts regarding photo hosting sites. I signed up for Photobucket and spent some time "playing" with it; trying to transfer my album from Picasa using MS Web Publishing Wizard to upload more than 20 photos at a time without having to mark each one individually for uploading. So far I haven't had much luck as a script error is generated during each attempt. I've done some basic checking of my Java settings, script permissions, etc. but haven't managed to get Gates to Google yet. Any suggestions?

Wow, Bill. Good job on this "Stovebolt Consumer Report."

You always do good work.

Shall we add this to the Glovebox Manual or make this part of the Tech Tip area. Or FAQ?

Watcha think?

Peg

down2 - you're probably bumping different script types, not sure what MS web wiz uses, but it would be trying to operate on your HD [active X] and picasa [javascript] at the same time - it may also be that the app isn't "allowed" into Picasa

I'm not sure how the MS web wiz works, but don't you have the pics on your HD? you should be able to use Photobucket to upload anything already on your computer when you're logged in there - I got signed on there but haven't put any pics up yet

if you don't have all the pics, I'd think you should be able to log into your account at Picasa and find a spot where you can bring them back to your HD .... most all the hosts have their own setup for loading pics, not like a place where you "publish" web pages

Peg - won't know what I think till after I get back from the doctor

Bill

Bill -- Thanks for taking the time to respond. Yes, the pics riside on my HD. Photobucket has a registry patch that enables uploading photos using Explorer and then MS Wiz. Using MS Wiz allows you to upload more than 20 pics at a time and also allows you to bypass the cumbersome Photobucket select 20 pics one at a time feature.

Anyway, I'll work on it as soon as I finish my afternoon medicinal Absolut treatment :p

Hope your visit to the doc went well.

Don

won't know for a few days, but they did have some free samples in the office that saved me a few bucks!

OK, I edited the original list about the MS Publisher after looking at their info - don't like registry patches generally, but that one seems benign

I also tried the uploader, and for a large batch at once, it may be a little tedious ... one problem I see with using MS Publisher is I think you'll still have to edit the pics individually in the album to add titles to each, where with their uploader you can do it as you select each pic

here's babytrkrs birds

Bill

Red, thanks for the comparison. I chose Flickr because it was free, and has been OK so far. I don't like the sites that push the advertising.

I noticed that you had more than one that you gave high rankings, so in your opinion, which would you recommend as your favorite?

John

Ran into one called Fotki the other day. Doesn't look too bad. Ed

I have been on Webshots for a lil while and I like it. Easy to navigate and use. The download part of it isnt too bad. Do it once and you never have to do it again. I paid for the membership because it lets you organize your albums better, plus you can have a LOT of pics on there.

I know a lot of people that use photobucket but sometimes they give that "bandwith exceeded" message when embedding images such as on Myspace or the like.

I like your info though. Sounds like (as Peggy mentioned) a great tech tip.

Wow... impressive...

Thanks for the comparative study and letting everyone know all the options out there, red! Good work!

~Trev