Semi-old thread, but i'll pitch in with a tip.
If you're using Google+ for any reason (i do with auto backup for laziness etc), here's a neat little trick:
First you enter the photo section and select an image:
Then you right-click on the image, and copy the url:
Finally, you paste it in as a normal
with the slight exception where you can change the width by modifying the url directly, the highlighted part says
w779, chagngin that to
w3840 would make the width 3840 pixels (which happens to be the pictures original size).. or you can change it down to
w300:
In my case i usually use
800 as it fits most older devices and phones nicely.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
You can also use a special link for
google drive to at least hot-link images:
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=view&id=<fileId>
Where the <fileid> is replaced with whatever ID is given when you select a item in google-drive and selects "share"
Note: Both these scenarios require the picture to have the private settings on the individual image set to "Anyone with the link" or "public" to work
Anyway, since Google+ functions as my main backup location for images it might as well serve as a permanent web-link service (much like Flickr, Imgur, etc)
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)