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About ImageShack™
Dec. 3rd, 2004 01:36 amSomewhere over the past couple of days -- I think in the course of reading about events in Ukraine -- I ran across ImageShack™, a free image hosting service. At first blush, the service sounds too good to be true: unlimited single uploads of a variety of image types. Once you upload an image, the site creates thumbnails of images and furnishes code to link either to the image itself (on personal web sites, forums, or auctions), like this,
or to a thumbnail (which can appear anywhere, see an example below) that links to the image. The uploader retains all rights to the image. Sure, there are restrictions: no porn, banner ads, or copyrighted items. Nothing intended to harrass anyone. Images can't exceed 1 MB in size. No changes are allowed to the HTML they provide for linkage.
My experience with competing services includes Fotolog.net, which severely limits uploads, even to paying members, although admittedly the focus of the latter site is more along the lines of developing graphics-based communities and friends lists, and thus may not be actually competing with ImageShack. Too, LiveJournal has a capability that, as a paid user, I can use to post photos and audio posts, but unless things have changed recently, that space is limited to 50 MB (though I seem to recall you can buy additional space, too). But I digress...
ImageShack has adopted an unusual registration and security protocol. You register with your email, whereupon you get an email in reply with a link that logs you in to the site and creates a cookie on your machine. If the cookie disappears, expires, or whatever, or if you decide to use another machine to log in, you can either click on the link or reregister with the same email address and click on the new link in the reply email. Apparently, you don't really need to register to use the service, but I'm not sure how that works, other than you can't get at uploaded images afterward. In this regard, the no-paper-trail upload (aside from the IP address, I would imagine) would be just the thing, I imagine, if you're posting images to the Internet that might not sit well with certain Powers That Be, but I begin to digress...
Anyway, in trying to figure out how they make their money, the best I can come up with is the following:
I guess in the final analysis, there's nothing much to worry about, aside from the normal concerns anyone should have for becoming too dependent on any free service. Right?
Cheers...
or to a thumbnail (which can appear anywhere, see an example below) that links to the image. The uploader retains all rights to the image. Sure, there are restrictions: no porn, banner ads, or copyrighted items. Nothing intended to harrass anyone. Images can't exceed 1 MB in size. No changes are allowed to the HTML they provide for linkage.
My experience with competing services includes Fotolog.net, which severely limits uploads, even to paying members, although admittedly the focus of the latter site is more along the lines of developing graphics-based communities and friends lists, and thus may not be actually competing with ImageShack. Too, LiveJournal has a capability that, as a paid user, I can use to post photos and audio posts, but unless things have changed recently, that space is limited to 50 MB (though I seem to recall you can buy additional space, too). But I digress...
ImageShack has adopted an unusual registration and security protocol. You register with your email, whereupon you get an email in reply with a link that logs you in to the site and creates a cookie on your machine. If the cookie disappears, expires, or whatever, or if you decide to use another machine to log in, you can either click on the link or reregister with the same email address and click on the new link in the reply email. Apparently, you don't really need to register to use the service, but I'm not sure how that works, other than you can't get at uploaded images afterward. In this regard, the no-paper-trail upload (aside from the IP address, I would imagine) would be just the thing, I imagine, if you're posting images to the Internet that might not sit well with certain Powers That Be, but I begin to digress...
Anyway, in trying to figure out how they make their money, the best I can come up with is the following:
- Donations, which may be significant, for all I know
- Payments for uploads of multiple images, which amount to US$0.01 per image when credit is purchased for 500 images (as noted above, single image uploads are free)
- Advertising. When you click on a thumbnail, you are vectored to a page showing the full-size image and four Goooooogle ads. There are also Goooooogle ads on various pages on the site (e.g., the image upload page). The following is the photo above (taken during last May-June's launch campaign) shown as a thumbnail.
How is ImageShack(TM) able to provide such a service?Hmmm. That's very vague. It could mean anything, from offering registered users photo printing and album services to I don't know what. I seem to recall one of the early ideas floated about LJ was a feature to allow users to publish their entries in book form, or something like that.
ImageShack(TM) is a privately funded company that seeks to generate interest in the ImageShack Brand(TM) through the use of Internet Websites. ImageShack intends to promote ImageShack Brand(TM) products in the future.
I guess in the final analysis, there's nothing much to worry about, aside from the normal concerns anyone should have for becoming too dependent on any free service. Right?
Cheers...
