Entered CNET Catalog: 06/15/2006
SKU: SERVGOOGLEPICASAWEBALBUMS
Manufacturer: Google
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 06/15/2006
At first blush, integration appears quite good. You create an album by first selecting photos from your Picasa library, then pressing the Web Album button in Picasa. It couldn't be simpler. Album titles and descriptions transfer over automatically, but you can easily change them if you want. The albums get nice, human-readable URLs, and sharing them is a snap. Other Picasa users can download images (if you allow it) into their own Picasa libraries. And the Web pages that Picasa Web Albums creates are very clean and easy to navigate.
But there are small snags. While albums on Picasa Web Albums can be made either public or unlisted, there's no way that I saw to password-protect them. And although Web Albums will display slide shows, captions that you attach to photos don't show up in them.
But I have a bigger issue with this service: it's one way. Once you upload photos from Picasa to Picasa Web Albums, there's no link between them. If you write a caption or delete a photo on your PC, nothing changes on your online album (or vice versa). I'm spoiled by the technology of Phanfare, both of which feature live synchronization between media files on your PCs and your online albums. I think synchronization is the only way to go if you're going to have the same images online and on your PC. I'm disappointed that Google did not more tightly integrate its Picasa software and Web service.
I'm also surprised that Google is being so stingy with online storage space for photos: Free accounts are limited to 250MB. That's adequate for a bunch of slide shows but it's not enough to be a serious online photo storage solution. Oddly, Gmail, which is also free, gives you 2.7GB to play around in. If you want more photo storage, you can get 6GB online for $25 a year. I don't think that's a very good value, and it's still not enough space to store a typical family's picture archive (Phanfare, one of the few photo sites that charges for storage, costs $55 a year but provides unlimited space).
I was hoping for more innovation and a richer feature set for Picasa's online product. On the other hand, for current Picasa users, I don't know of a simpler or faster way to share photos.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5out of 5 user reviews
It doesn't work
Pros: if pictures can't be uploaded there will no any
Cons: Can't upload pictures
Its sad becasue I was likign it while I was in Chile.
out of 5 user reviews
Simple and Easy
Pros: Easy to use and straighforward. The program easily uploads photos from Picasa onto a web albums for others to view and download (if you wish) and downloading others' albums or photos is so simple.
Cons: You have to pay extra for extra storage, which seems like something new from Google.
The ability to download pictures and entire web albums is another great feature. I may look at other people's albums and either download a select picture, or the entire album if I wish.
The only problem with Picasa Web Albums is that you start out with 250mb of free storage, any extra storage after that is paid for yearly, which is something new from Google...to pay to use extra storage from one of their products. Google has always been a leader in providing that extra bit for free, but they definitely feel behind on this one to Yahoo! Photos, however, Yahoo! Photos doesn't have the ease of download like Picasa does.
out of 5 user reviews
Excellent programs
Pros: simple, fast, flexible
Cons: No tagging yet, although promised for next versions
out of 5 user reviews
Nice and easy to use
Pros: Easy to uplaod from Picasa; Clear interface; "Choose your cover photo" option; Only posts reduced size pictures (space saving and copyright protected)
Cons: Only 250MB; Not possible to create subfolders
It automatically uploads reduced size pictures, which is good for both space saving and for protecting your original works from being copied (well, this might not be a big concern to all of us).
Some suggestions for possible improvement:
1. Possibility to create SUBFOLDERS: instaed of having a huge folder for one trip, or having a multitude of fodlers; it would be nice to organize the pix into subfodlers and still having an clear overall main page.
2. Possibility to create a personalized index page (so that it can replace a website).
3. Increase FREE diskspace (250MB currently).
out of 5 user reviews
what my friends have been waiting for!
Pros: fast uploading of albums
Cons: friends need an email invitation to see site
