Network-based photosharing architecture

A method for providing a network-based photo-sharing service including a peer server and a plurality of peer nodes for sharing digital images, the method comprising:

• at the peer server:
• receiving, from a first peer node, metadata for an image stored at the first peer node;
• associating the metadata with an image locator for locating the image at the first peer node;
• receiving, from a second peer node, an image search request that includes search criteria;
• determining if the image search request is requesting the image stored at the first peer node based on whether the search criteria corresponds to the received metadata for the image stored at the first peer node;
• and
• providing the image locator to the second peer node for retrieving the image from the first peer node when the received search criteria corresponds to the received metadata for the image stored at the first peer node, wherein the image locator is configured to allow the second peer node to retrieve the image from the first peer node independent of the peer server.