TubeImage.com
TubeImage is a free photo-hosting site that offers support for those wanting to publish the images to Myspace, eBay, other online auctions, discussion forums and blogs.
The images you upload to TubeImage.com stay on their server indefinitely and the site will also generate code that you can use to link to the images. You can register on the site, but for quick image linking you can upload and obtain the link code without creating an account. Just in case you forget the link code to your images however, you might want to consider creating a free account.
Village Photos
As an eBay Certified Developer, you can be sure that Village Photos image-hosting will work well for eBay sellers plus those looking to add images to Yahoo Auctions and Stores, MySpace, smaller auction or classifieds sites and other personal publishing spaces. (However, there is one annoying feature: the "review and select free offers" screen that loads after you have signed up for a free account. The easiest way around this is to quit the offer window, and return to the main page and log in with your newly created username and password.)
The first thing you will note is that Village Photos assigns you a permanent URL. All the images you upload will start with the provided URL. After creating a new album you can upload up to 50 images to be stored on Village Photos, which must meet the maximum 250KB file size restriction. Compared to other services, I did find image uploading a bit slow, however, once your images are online you simply go to your unique URL and copy the image location to your Web pages to display the images in other online spaces. Village Photos also provides URL, HTML and Thumbnail view code you can easily copy and paste.
The free Basic Village Photos account lets users upload images that are 50 to 250KB in size and also provides a 1,000MB monthly transfer limit. Upgrade accounts are available in six different plans, ranging from $3.75 to $25 per month. These upgraded accounts will give you larger image file sizes, unlimited bandwidth and Web pages. Free accounts are limited to one account per household.
ImageSafeHost
ImageSafeHost, owned and operated by BarBil Enterprises, offers users a place to freely upload and store 1MB of images and allows up to 100MB of bandwidth per month. ImageSafeHost is comparable to PhotoCrib, so much in fact we wondered if it were the same company offering the same service under a different branding, however the ImageSafeHost site does have a cleaner look and speedier service.
Even if they are the same company, most allow you only one free account, so if you have lots of images to host you can use more than one service. Once you create a free account you can upload images, however the images are branded with an ImageSafeHost message.
This free service will also let you create auction galleries, but to access other features such as portfolios, slideshows, 360 spins and to remove the branding on images, you will need to upgrade to a paying account. ImageSafeHost offers four levels of paid accounts that will let you access all the extra features and provide more disk space and bandwidth. Upgraded accounts range from $3 to $10 per month.
Vangie Beal is a frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide and managing editor of Webopedia.com.
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