A method and system for providing a network-based photosharing service is disclosed. The photosharing service includes a central photosharing site having a server, and a plurality of peer nodes each containing digital images. The method and system include associating metadata with each image that is to be shared. The metadata is standardized data indicating at least the position where the image was created. Preferably the data is GPS data, but can be from other sources, and is standardized. Storage of the images is maintained on the respective peer nodes. In response to the peer server receiving search criteria based on the metadata submitted from a first one of the peer nodes, the peer server returns a list of image locators for images matching the search criteria to the first peer node. The images are returned in order of accuracy of the position information data source. There is also disclosed a method and system implemented on a single computer.