Imgur: Dead Simple Image Hosting

Many bloggers prefer to host their images elsewhere. Whether it is that their hosts provide limited space, they have bandwidth concerns or just prefer the convenience, image hosts like Flickr, Imageshack and PhotoBucket have served bloggers and Webmasters over the years.

However, a new service hopes to make image hosting even easier for bloggers. Imgur (pronounced imager), does this by reducing image hosting to nothing but the upload. There are no accounts to register for, no need to tag your image, nothing but an upload button.

Best of all, the images hosted on the site are private, only the uploader gets the links, and, if needed, the service can do some very basic image editing before uploading the images to help ensure that your images are the right size when you embed them on your blog.

It’s a very simple service, but one that many bloggers are going to wonder how they lived without.

How it Works

When you first visit Imgur, you are presented with a very Google-like interface but instead of a search box, the main form element is an upload box with a large “Continue” button underneath. The only option the user has is to “Skip Image Editing”, which is checked by default.

You then select any image on your hard drive up to 2 MB in size and upload it to the server. If you choose to skip image editing, you are taken straight to the “share” page, which provides a series of links and HTML snippets to embed the image. It includes a direct link, an IMG tag, an HTML linked version and one using message board syntax.

If you decide to let Imgur edit your image, you are taken to a very basic image editor that will allow you to rotate and resize your image. However, the image can only be rotated in 90 degree increments, meaning no minor adjustments, and it can only scale the image in proportion so the image won’t appear stretched.

Currently, there is no way to crop or otherwise alter the image beyond those two functions. Once you are done with that and hit “Continue” you are taken to the share page mentioned above.

You can crop the image by clicking on it and dragging the portion you want to be visible and you can manipulate the proportions by clicking the “Show Presets” link below the dimensions if you want to use one of a set number of sizes (similar to other sites) or break the proportion of the image (though this will cause stretching).

All in all, it is hard to imagine a much more simple solution, especially considering there are no limits on the number of images uploaded and, at this time, no limits on the traffic the image can receive.

Spiritual Similarities

Of the major file sharing services, Imgur has most in common with ImageShack and TinyPic, a PhotoBucket service for those who don’t want to register an account.

Though both offer “No Registration Required” uploads, ImageShack puts limits on bandwidth and Tinypic places all images in a public archive that can be browsed. Both also have more complicated interfaces, albeit only slightly.

The upside to TinyPic and Imageshack is that they both accept video as well as images and have much more established names, meaning that they will almost certainly be around for a long time to come and their reliability has been proved to be solid overall.

All in all, Imgur seems to be positioning itself as the easiest of the easy image sharers. Though it lacks some of the features of the more established players, for those who need to just put an image on the Web and drop it into an email, blog post or IM, it’s probably the fastest method around.

Should You Use an Image Host?

The final question is whether a blog should use an image host at all. With every major blogging platform providing an easy way to upload images to your own server or your account, there likely isn’t much reason unless you are concerned about the image being taken down.

For the most part, your site will load faster and you’ll have better SEO if you keep as many of your images as possible on your own site. That being said, if you have limited storage space and/or bandwidth, it may be a worthwhile trade for a slight slowdown to ensure your site is always running well.

The best use for something like Imgur is usually to send something quickly to a friend or to post directly to a social news site. However, if you think that an image might draw a lot of traffic that could be taxing, such as a banner you’re encouraging others to post on your site, it may be worthwhile to host it remotely.

In short, you need to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of hosting your images off site and, if you do decide it is right for you, you probably need to give Imgur a good look.

If nothing else, it can greatly speed up and simplify the process of getting your work online.

Written by Jonathan Bailey from Plagiarism Today
Posted on March 12th, 2009 and filed under Domain Names & Hosting
Do not forget to subscribe to our RSS feed for updates

6