The site is hopefully going to be transferred over to it’s own server within the next 48 to 72 hours, after one or two more features are installed and some final rigorous bug testing is done. Once the site is released publically, the link will be publically released here on my blog.

Keep an eye out!

wImg Host Main Page - Screenshot

Created: July 2008

URL: http://wimg.co.uk

Description: A free image and file hosting service, offering people the option of over 20 different extensions and upto 10MB per upload. Newly added, wImg offer users the option to snip really long URLs down to a more managable size.

Coding Used: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, AJax, PHP and MySQL

wImg has been something I’ve been trying to create for years – however in the past I haven’t taken it professionally or for that matter seriously. In the past, I’ve ran premade scripts with minimal features and without any means by which to expand the service to do what I want it to. However, come July, it was decided that I would create my own Image Host. It started off more as a test to see if I could do it – well I could.

I began by writing a simple upload form & really really simple backend. On the first day, I had a total of 4 Uploads. July was a slow month, but not to worry because we’d just started and to be honest, why would someone use us over a competitor?

Word soon began to spread around that wImg was the place to be for the image hosting that you require. It was simple & fast, and most of all – it was advert-free, what more could people want? Well, they wanted was more extensions, and also – the ability to upload larger filesizes. With that – I provided. v1 was to be blunt, simple and outdated after a few months. So I commissioned a designer to create what would become v2. v2 would host a range of new features which were made possible by a server change.

The server change – this was down to the fact that with a previous host we were with, we were overusing our resources – and at that stage, it was decided to upgrade the hosting while we were at it. So we now run wImg from a UK server, we chose a UK server simply because it’s a UK based company – and so therefore should be tied to UK laws. With this change we were able to create new features that hadn’t been on wImg before.

V2 saw new features including more uploads in the multi-uploader, ability to upload via URL – the ability to tag an image – 5 of the most recent ’safe’ uploaded images. And to top it all off, wImg had a better stats page. What we wanted to have was complete transparency between our host, and our clients (the users), we wanted them to know what was going on – as and when.

With this transparency came the publicly accessible personal email address of wImg Host – just the one email address, and all emails are read & replied to. Not only that, but wImg v2 bought about something better … something people wanted, but some didn’t want. The ability to keep track of previous uploads.

Member accounts was a big thing – it’s something that people have wanted, and people have needed, thankfully it’s been a big success, with over 175 members, and over 4,000 uploads [at the time of writing].

v2.5 was the new thing on the block – it was set for release around the time of the 11th month – or for that matter, now! v2.5 was planning to boast features that other image/file hosts didn’t. Including personalised URL forming, wSnip [a URL shortener] integration, txt/css/js file creator & editor … and more.  Many of the v2.5 features are starting to roll out – with the URL shortener now available for use in the left hand side bar on the wImg website – and the editor & creator is also available.

The Future: wImg hopefully has a bright future, either as a more experimental task, or simply as a business, new features are planned for release including paid member accounts, and a new look. So stay in touch for v3, and for our year anniversary in 2 weeks time, it’s going to be big.