New Netratings data reports that as more and more users integrate photos into their blog pages–and as the world reports on world events–the amount of photo-publishing and hosting has grown more than 406% since January 2005, with photo-hosting sites (including blog ASPs) accounting for 10% of active Internet users.
Netratings reports that top referring sites for the top five image hosting sites during August2005 included MySpace.com, Xanga.com, LiveJournal, Blogger and MSN Spaces.
InJuly 2005, Nielsen//NetRatings reported that 20 percent of active Web users, or 29.3 million people, accessed blogging or blog-related Web sites, growing31 percent since the beginning of the year.
Money quote is from Jon Gibbs, research manager: “The large rise in blogging activity has lifted other Web sites, the primary one being image hosting sites. Simple text-based ‘diaries’ have evolved into a more image-oriented presentation.”
(Susan sez: One might add that world events, not only evolving customer behavior, are responsible for this truth.)
The table:

 Table 1. Top 5 Image Hosting Web Sites, Jan. vs. Aug. 2005 (Home & Work,
U.S.)
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Site Jan 05 UA (000) Aug 05 UA (000) Jan-Aug Growth
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PhotoBucket 1,537 12,241 696%
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ImageShack 1,150 3,444 199%
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Putfile.com -- 1,302 --
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TinyPic.com -- 715 --
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Imagevenue.com -- 559 --
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Category* 2,912 14,734 406%
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, September 2005
*Note: Category is comprised of 50 image hosting Web sites.
The demos (yes,teens are into it)
Table 2. Highest Indexing Age & Gender Groups for Image Hosting Sites
(U.S., Home & Work)
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Demo Group Unique Audience (000) Composition % Composition Index
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Female 12 - 17 2,219 15% 259
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Male 12 - 17 1,532 10% 191
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Male 21 - 24 479 3% 182
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Male 18 - 24 1,004 7% 175
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Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, September 2005