Site(s) of the Moment
Sometimes, when you’re on a message forum, MySpace, or even email you want to embed an image from the internet or your computer. Unfortunately, there is a growing number of sites out there which use hotlink protection which either completely stops the image from being shown or replaces it with another image. And they use this protection with good reason, since bandwidth costs money and leeching drives up that cost.
When you run into this problem, here are a few sites which will help you host your images.
Photobucket
This one you may have heard of. This is the best site if you plan to keep an ongoing album/archive of pictures, graphics and what have you. You can just upload any image into any number of albums and link to them. The codes are all there, and there are some neat tools, too, including uploading from a direct URL (so you don’t have to save the image to your hard drive first), cropping and slide shows. This site requires a login and does have a limit on bandwidth and storage usage, though it’s unlikely you’ll run into problems.
Flickr
Another one you likely have heard of. Flickr is the best site for your photographs (and graphics). Like Photobucket, it’s great for albums. But it also has a large community, so you can share your photos with groups, chat with people, and, of course, link to your photos. Flickr also requires a login.
ImageShack
Finally, there’s ImageShack. ImageShack has the advantage over both Flickr and Photobucket in that it doesn’t require a login. You can upload an image from the web or your computer, get the code for it and post it wherever you want. There are also options for resizing, cropping, using thumbnails, etc.
These sites I find very useful and recommend using at least one of them for your image-hosting needs.
Sites of the Moment: Photobucket | Flickr | ImageShack
