US communications company AT&T and internet giant Yahoo have launched a web-based photo community service designed to make it easier for people to share digital photo collections.

AT&T Yahoo Photos claims to offer desktop-like functionality in a web-based service.

It offers features like photo-tagging for easy viewing, smart albums or online 'playlists' of photos that detect newly tagged images and automatically recognise and add tagged photos to online albums.

The companies claim that by using Web 2.0 technology, the service moves beyond static online album structure and provides the ability to save photos to more than one album.

"AT&T Yahoo Photos enables users to spend less time maintaining their photo collections and more time viewing and sharing them with family and friends," said Will Aldrich, director of Yahoo Photos.

The number of online photo service users is expected to grow from 55 million in 2004 to 83 million in 2009, according to market research firm InfoTrends.

Nielsen//NetRatings said that 62.5 per cent of internet-connected US households now have broadband, which facilitates more interactivity with online photos.