Hoping to get a jump on Google and other competitors, Adobe Systems plans to release a hosted version of its popular Photoshop image-editing application within six months. This announcement comes at a time when developers are lavishing attention on Adobe’s Flex platform, particularly in the video editing and sharing space.

The online service will complement their existing product range, and reach new customers across the online marketplace. The free entry level online hosted application will have fewer image editing tools, but will suffice online photo editing junkies.

Adobe has been watching Google and other online application companies closely, and wants to ensure that they hit that market before others take control. The latest version of Google's Picasa, which is a desktop application, introduces features to post photos on the Web. It also allows people to read Photoshop files.