Technological advances in digital photography and the fact that family and friends are more dispersed and living in an increasingly virtual reality are factors that have fuelled the recent surge in online photo sharing.

Millions of people all over the world have taken to this new craze by joining the plethora of online photo sharing communities on the web.

Traditionally, snap-happy partygoers or holidaymakers amassed hundreds of photographs, which they had to go to a specialist to get developed in order to be able to share their special moments with friends and loved ones.

But the growing popularity of digital photography has made the job of sharing your life with others much easier.

Figures released by high street photography retailer Jessops showed that digital cameras topped the list of Christmas presents. Overall, there was a 9.4 per cent rise in the cameras sold last month, with sales of more expensive models such as the digital lens reflex increasing by 93 per cent.

And with more people taking digital photographs, the ease at which they can be shared online has led to more photo sharing on the web.

The free access to these sites as well as the fact that they are relatively easy-to-use has led to their increasing popularity, which consequently spawns the creation of even more communities to meet the demand.

Websites such as snapfish.com and shutterfly.com offer free membership and allow people to make online photo albums that can be viewed by friends, families and even random acquaintances.

By using these sites, a grandmother can see a picture of her grandson's first steps even though he's living halfway across the world.

Similarly, friends who want to relive their exploits from the previous Friday night can also benefit from these online communities.

Some of these photo sharing sites even allow members or their relatives to be able to immortalise happy moments through imprinting them on mugs or calendars.

Snapfish.com has more than 19 million members and 350 million different photos stored on the web and lets its members share, print and store their pictures for a price. This is just one of the many sites offering the service.

And the photo sharing phenomenon continues to evolve as Kodak and Skype announced this week their joint venture to allow those with broadband internet connection to talk to their friends and family across the ether using their photos.

In order to use the free service, the photo host chooses a number of pictures and puts them into a slide show and can then call up a guest via Skype to discuss the photos while looking at them.

With the trends in social networking and digital photography set to continue, the predictions of Kodak's Steve Morley might come true and "traditional social gatherings that once took place around the radio, television or telephone" will now take place around "the computer, mobile phone or camera".