When #Google #hijacked #Picasa and bundled it with #Google+, the work I expended organizing and managing my photos with #Picasa seems to be for not. Not wanting or needing a “front end” for a social networking platform, the #hijacked #Picasa platform no longer meets my online photo management needs.
If you want to share photos and manage your photos from #Google+ circles, then #Picasa might still be for you. The new system opens possibilities, especially when communicating with groups. If I were to use it for anything in the future it will be to communicate with my circles and specific interest groups; however, I will only store the photos needed rather than all of my galleries. For the remainder of my photos, I have switched to Flicker, and am building a private gallery on my website for future use. #Bye-bye #Picasa. For my use, #Flicker has more options for control and Web distribution than #Google+, not to mention a professional option.
Like the majority of those upset over the changes to Picasa on Googlesystem.blogspot, I too am very disappointed. Had I known such drastic changes were intended I could have made other choices. I made a fatal assumption believing Google would continue to improve Picasa as a photo management tool. As in all free services however, one must consider changes from a perspective of “how the company will benefit,” as opposed to “how the change will help the customer.” And change is always a possiblility, especially with Google. This leads one to wonder about the future of cloud computing and file management. How will other companies conduct business on the internet? If Google’s conduct is any measure, I caution everyone to remember, especially with “free” services, you get what you pay for. Caveat emptor!
Aside from Flicker, other photo-managing software is available from #StudioLine and #Pictmio for PC users, while Mac aficionados may achieve similar results with #iPhoto, #Aperture, & #Lightroom, or with freeware from #Photonator and similar programs. If you want to store your photos online, most of the software programs listed here will allow uploads to your Website in the form of Web-compatible albums. If you don’t have a Website, I believe free web-hosting services and development tools are available from providers like “www.000webhost.com,” and GeoCities (I am not affiliated with any of the companies or products mentioned). There are many more sites offering free hosting, although the advertised storage and bandwidth for free accounts is limited. I noticed www.000webhost.com boasts 1.5 GB of free disk space, enough for several thousand 500K image files. If you’re storing your entire photo collection of original files online you may need considerably more disk space.
Read the post thread for yourself at Google System Blogspot. Comments and information about popular online photo-management systems would be appreciated.