Looking for a Photo Sharing website

[Glen Blanchard]

The ideal website would have the following features:



free of charge
a URL that would take someone directly to my album (no membership required, no logging in, no ads, etc)
ability to embed photos on other websites/forums (like SMC)
click-able thumbnails
perhaps a small selection of templates or themes
no need for twitter or facebook integration



So, does such a site exist? If not, how close can I get?

[Larry Browning]

I believe piccasa does all that plus lots more. I use it to organize all my photos on my PC. It works perfect for me.
I would also like to see what others reccomend though.
BTW. Finding something free AND ad free is going to be challenging. They have to pay to keep the lights on like everybody else too.

[John Conklin]

Glen, I've been using Smugmug for about 5 years and really like it. I believe it fits all your criteria except that it is not free. I believe that it is $39 a year, that's the entry level account and there are others set up for professional photographers who sell their photos. One thing that I really like about it is that you can set the visibility of each album. I've never had problems linking photos to forums and I've done a lot of it in other forums. I've always found it worth the $3/month not to have to deal with sites like photobucket.

You can take a look at my page on Smugmug (http://jac1961.smugmug.com/) if you'd like.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Glen, I've been using Smugmug for about 5 years and really like it. I believe it fits all your criteria except that it is not free. I believe that it is $39 a year, that's the entry level account and there are others set up for professional photographers who sell their photos. One thing that I really like about it is that you can set the visibility of each album. I've never had problems linking photos to forums and I've done a lot of it in other forums. I've always found it worth the $3/month not to have to deal with sites like photobucket.

You can take a look at my page on Smugmug (http://jac1961.smugmug.com/) if you'd like.

Keep in mind that the default setting for your pics you put there is public. I didn't know this until I started getting compliments on some family photos, not meant for the public. Easy enough to change the settings, and it's a nice site.

I just use google drive now. My phone or computers automatically upload the pics, categorized via day, via Chrome, copy paste from there or download full resolution. 100GB is $1.99/month. Easier to share photos from there this way then it is to go get links. I think there is a picasa interface there too, but have never tried it.

[Erik Loza]

Glen, have you tried Photobucket? I've been happy with them. It would appear to meet all your criteria. Depending on how much memory you actually need, you could always opt to pay $20/year for unlimited hosting, though I think the free service would be adequate for most folks.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Bill Huber]

It is not free but there are NO ads of any type, at $23 for 1gb per year is really cheap.

You can send a url to someone for a gallery
Gallery http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/shop
Just an image http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/image/86660086
You can hide a gallery or you can also password protect a gallery so only a person given the password can see it

You can embed an images in a forum.

You can link to a thumbnail or to the large image.
Thumbnail http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/image/86660086/small
Medium Image http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/image/86660086/medium
Large image http://www.pbase.com/wlhuber/image/86660086/original

There are different looks that are set or you can custom your own.

[Glen Blanchard]

All good suggestions. I knew that not having ads and at the same time being free were virtually mutually exclusive, but hey I said "ideal". :)

I have some research to do.

Thanks to all.

[Bill Huber]

All good suggestions. I knew that not having ads and at the same time being free were virtually mutually exclusive, but hey I said "ideal". :)

I have some research to do.

Thanks to all.

Another thing about http://pbase.com/ is you can upload zip files, that is you could have 100 images and put them in a zip file and upload that file or you can do one image at a time or you can pick 20 different ones and then upload them.

I do have a question, what software do you use to organize, resize, crop your images.

[Glen Blanchard]

I do have a question, what software do you use to organize, resize, crop your images.

I use Photoshop CS2.

[Gordon Eyre]

I second Bill's remarks about PBase. I have been with them for years and IMHO they are the best. You can view my images at www.pbase.com/greyflash