Free Image Hosting: Imageshack

If you have been looking for a place where you could store your images online, without going over the allowed storage space on your own web server or hosting provider, and without having to pay a monthly hosting fee, here is good one coming along.

Imageshack is a new free image hosting provider allowing anyone to upload and host unlimited images online at absolutely no cost.

The only limitation is that each image must not be larger than 1MB in size.

The features and simplicity of use of this service make it a little unique gem for those needing reliable and performing alternative solutions to their image hosting needs.

 

 

Imageshack supports images in .jpg, .bmp, .tif, .gif, .PNG and .swf (Flash) graphic file formats.

Unlimited image hosting space is guaranteed to all users and there is no bandwidth limit on the amount of downloads that Imageshack is willing to manage.

You can even do away with registration and start uploading images this very moment by simply heading to http://www.imageshack.us/.

For those who register the advantages are the ability to track images downloads and to delete or undelete any uploaded picture.

Registration is extremely simple and requires only the submission of your preferred email address. Once done so an email is sent to that address with an activation link.

Registered users enjoy also the benefit of being able to get the image code for their images with the click of a button, view the usage statistics for their images such as image size and time uploaded, access images from any Internet connected computer, view images through a thumbnail or list-type view and, as mentioned, the abilities to delete and undelete their images and to batch upload multiple images, with the ability to resize them directly upon upload.

If you are yet unhappy and want also the ability to upload multiple images at once, then a pre-paid credit option is available starting at $4.99 for 500 credits and allowing you to upload as many images you want as a .zip file on Imageshack for the cost of one credit per image.

Another interesting feature of this new image hosting service is ImageShack Transloader, which allows you to upload images to ImageShack while you are visiting other websites. In simple terms this is a little utility that allows anyone to upload to the Imageshack web server any image found on any Web site with just a few simple clicks.

This means that if you find an image on a website that you would like to host on ImageShack, you don't have to download it to your computer and then upload it, you can simply upload directly from the website that hosts that image.

Though I can hear your rightful concerns about copyright and re-use, there are still many non commercial applications in which this may turn to be very useful, especially to non-technical users.

Another feature of Imageshack is the ability to integrate the Imageshack free image uploading form into your own web site or blog. Called The ImageShack on your Site(tm) feature, it allows webmasters to place the ImageShack upload form directly into their forums, blogs, sites, message boards, allowing visitors to experience directly the convenience of ImageShack's free image hosting service.

Here is an example. Try it out:

Once your image has been uploaded Imageshack provides an impressive reference of ready-made URLs that you can use to employ the just-uploaded image to a number of applications. There is a link to a ready-made thumbnail, optimized for standard web sites or forums, a direct link to the image, again available for multiple applications and even one allowing thumbnails to automatically point to the larger versions of the selected image.

And as if the above wasn't enough an additional feature called Imageshack-Everywhere allows anyone to upload images by using a straightforward facility embedded into their Internet Explorer browser sidebar.

Multiple images can be uploaded by using the Microsoft handy Web Publishing Wizard, a Microsoft free wizard-driven utility that makes it extremely easy to upload files to any server. By downloading the Microsoft Web Publishing Wizard from Imageshack (you can do so once registered and logged into your My Images area) one can start benefiting immediately from the ability to upload multiple images to Imageshack with maximum simplicity. Here, give a look to the guide and see for yourself.

But even without the Web Publishing Wizard uploading multiple images is as easy as knowing how to "zip" a set of images into one and then using the in-the-face uploading form available when you log into your account.

For for more information see Imageshack or its comprehensive FAQ page.