There are a number of organisations who will do some of the hard work, and provide a hosted photo gallery for you. They provide a method of squirting your photos up to them, usually via a web page, and often other facilities such as E-mail addresses.

However, any Web hosting company can display your photo gallery, so I’ve also included a number of links to convential hosts that don't specialise. It is very definitely worth shopping around to get the deal that suits you, and please read the small print before signing up for any of these services, especially with regard to your rights to images - it is quite possible to sign away your exclusive rights to photos, particularly when using public or semi-public albums. Note that some of the hosting packages, especially the free and budget ones, do not provide the specialist facilities like Perl and PHP that some of the gallery software requires. Your ISP will probably also offer some Web space with your connection package, though you may have to put up with a unmemorable generic domain name, rather than something of your choice.

Photo blogs are websites that allow you to publish photos on a regular basis, in date order. Similar to a web log (or blog), but for images rather than words. They usually don't have features like photo printing, but are richer in other areas such as sharing.

One unusual product, still currently in beta, is Codename Max. This allows sharing from your own PC, a concept of peer-to-peer sharing more commonly used for music files.

Gallery and photo blog Hosting Specialists

2and2.net - A free image and file hosting site that does not require registration. As they say, ideal for posting eBay and other auction site pictures. Whilst it carries ads, it is not over the top. Also a user forum for suggestions, feedback, and support.

All Dog Photos - A nicely presented niche gallery that registered users can use to display their dog photos. A number of the pictures are very good indeed, well worth a look.

Dotphoto - Mainly a photo printing service, but offers facilities for sharing photos (and videos) online.

Flickr - A well-featured photo sharing site. Easy uploads by a number of methods, including email, which is ideal for cameraphone users. Well suited for blogging, and a reasonably sophisticated privacy system (public/friends/family), and public and private groups can be created. Built in mail and commenting system as well as RSS and Atom feeds. There is also a photo organiser (“Organizr”). Basic accounts are free, with higher capacity accounts available at a price. Flickr has been taken over by Yahoo, leading to concerns over its future direction. Certainly you now need a Yahoo logon to create a new Flickr account. Example Flickr site.

Fotki - Free (10MB) and subscription (unlimited storage) photo sharing options. Printing and a number of other facilities such as traffic monitoring are available.

Fotolog - Classic photo blog. Free, though contributions are encouraged. In April 2006 it was holding around 100 million images.

Fotopic - An interesting host. Initially 250 MB of disk space is available, without expiry. Uploads can be via a web browser, E-mail, or FTP. There is a sophisticated control panel to manage the gallery and account. Other features include access via WAP-enabled mobile telephones. The service is free, but there is a premium service (which includes removal of the Fotopic branding) for a small monthly charge. Check out an example gallery here. Just to prove that a gallery can hold more than just photos, check out Menumania , who are hosted by Fotopic.

Grove Street - A charming and very uncommercial hosting site that is run more as a hobby than a business. Free. Example Grove Street Album.

Image Host Direct - Free (10 MB) and fee (100 MB) hosting service.

ImageShack - Free hosting of up to 600 MB of images.

ImageStation(.com) - Sony’s American photo sharing and printing service.

Imagestation(.co.uk) - Reliveit’s UK photo sharing and printing site. Especially welcoming to the phone camera user. Free unlimited storage.

iMira - This is Ulead’s free gallery service. You get 20 MB of disk space and a free copy of Photo Explorer, plus plenty of Ulead orientated marketing opportunities.

Lycos WebCentre - For a small monthly fee, Lycos will host your photo album, and you also get one e-mail address.

MAGIX Online Photo Album - A range of services (from free upwards) including good support for PDAs and mobile phone cameras.

Netomat - An unusual concept based on a web-page for back-and-forth communication of text photos, and other images such as drawings. Worth a look, and the basic service is free.

Ofoto - Whilst designed to offer a printing service, this site will host a gallery for you for free. As polished as you would expect from Kodak. Formerly Kodak Easyshare.

Pbase.com - A photo sharing and hosting web site. Pricing is based on disk usage, but free trial accounts are available.

Phonebin - Delightfully seedy site site catering to phone camera exhibitionists and voyeurs.

Photoblogs.org - A resource aimed at helping people to find specific kinds of photo blogs. Many thousands are listed.

PhotoBox - UK based print service and image sharing service. 30 MB of image space for free (100 MB after your first order). Good range of products over and above just prints, including such things as photo mugs, jigsaws, and deluxe handbags. Rated well by PC Pro magazine in a price/quality comparison with ink-jet printers.

Photobucket - Free hosting of photos, with direct linking (for example, for eBay) allowed.

PhotoGalaxy - A new UK hosting service, offering a basic but free service and also more sophisticated chargeable options.

Picturetrail - A couple of free packages (with limitations). A good selection of cheesy music to accompany your albums. Some interesting albums featured - I liked the Prison Dog Project.

Pixum - More of a print service than a public gallery, but cheap prints and a generous 200 MB of space for images.

Pixagogo - A nicely put together printing service with photo gallery and unlimited storage. Free trial. Based in Belgium.

The PhotoStation - Free photo sharing service, and more. Useful discussion forums, reviews, downloads etc. Well worth a look.

Smugmug - Slick online photo hosting service. Prices start at around $30 per year. No ads or spam.

Snapfish - Mainly after your photo printing business, but they offer “unlimited” online photo shared via personal albums. Based in San Francisco, with operations in the UK and Canada.

Snapmania - Swiss online photo manager with editing facilities such as cropping and the excellent concept of "tourist removal". Basic free trial, and various paid-for plans. Nice pictures of the team.

Streamload - “Unlimited” file storage for MP3s, Divx, Movies, Music, as well as photos. Free basic account, which can store up to 10 Gb. Larger storage and more options have to be paid for.

Village Photos - Free account for up to 25 images.

Web-a-photo - This American outfit offers a free 90-day trial. Easy to use with a friendly browser interface.

Weblogimages - Specifically designed for holding images for web logs, for example LiveJournal. Free basic service

Webshots - Apparently the “World’s largest photo sharing site”. A very easy to use American online photo album service, though the albums are accompanied by plenty of “marketing”. An example album I set up for the Frameroom can be found here. Lots of extras, including the ability to download a large number of stock photos and managing your PCs wallpaper via the Webshots uploading/downloading/photo management software.

Yahoo - Free hosting service with 30 MB of disk space. Riddled with ads.

Zooomr - Flickr looky-likey.

Web Hosts

BargainHost - Based in London. Offer a lot of features for a good price. PHP and Perl included with all packages.

HostingPhotography.com - Hosting service designed for photographers. Administered in the UK and hosted in Dallas, Texas.

Ideal Web Hosting - Good functionality with budget packages. Excellent control panel.

Heart Internet - A wide range of services, keenly priced. Recommended.

Netfirms - In the past have provided a free hosting service with advertising banners on each page. Other (advertisement  free) hosting services are available for a monthly subscription.

OneandOne - Germanic efficiency and a good range of packages. Recommended.

RedRival Internet Services - Offer a basic free hosting service supported by advertising. They can also provide a free e-mail account.

Tripod - Free hosting with 50MB of disk, and a site-building package. They also offer paid-for packages without the advertising banners. Worth investigating, especially if you are new to the world of Web hosting.

Webitsmart - They offer a free hosted homepage with a web-editor to create the content. Quick, easy, and no-cost fun. They also have more sophisticated paid packages. Worth a look if you wish to have a no-risk dabble.

For those interested in the surprisingly available and well-featured world of free hosting try the directory site free-webhosts.

File sharing

Codename Max - This is an interesting product, still under development by Microsoft. It is a peer-to-peer image sharing product, which essentially means that the image files remain on the user's PC, and the sharing of photos (defined on a 'list') occurs by a direct connection to another user of Max. Both users have to have a Microsoft Passport account to participate - This is the security and authorisation mechanism. There is not much to the product at the moment, but what it does seems to work well, and it does look good - It is based on the WinFX graphics that will be part of Vista, Windows XP's successor.