Filed under: iLife, Software, Internet Tools
Google releases Mac photo uploader for Picasa Web Albums
No, Google hasn't brought Picasa to Mac OS X, but they did release two tools to let Mac users upload photos to their Picasa Web Albums service (think: 'Google does Flickr'). The first app (honesty a bit of a surprise) is a full-on plugin for iPhoto to let users upload their images right from within Apple's popular photo-management app. The second tool is a good ol' fashioned stand-alone uploader for those who want to fly solo.I've never used the service before myself, though I signed up when Google first opened it up (I like to make myself available, when possible). I just took the iPhoto plugin for a spin and it works well, though I don't think Picasa Web Albums is aimed at your typical Flickr user (its largest and most obvious potential competitor). Most of the social aspects of Flickr, such as tagging, groups, etc., don't exist in Picasa Web Albums - it seems much more geared to those who mainly want a place to upload their photos online, with a simple gallery that is easy to link family and friends to (it's also obviously geared towards Picasa users on Windows too). Users can chose whether to make uploaded albums public or private, which is where one of Picasa Web Albums' social features comes into play: users do have the ability to set other users as favorites in order to more easily view images and albums they upload (though, strangely, I can't seem to find any kind of public area where I can go hunting for other users). On the downside, however, Picasa Web Albums only offers a measly 250MB of storage space for free, with a $25 upgrade option for an extra 6GB of space.
All in all this is a handy service and the new tools are a great gesture on Google's part towards the Mac community. However, due to Flickr's overwhelming popularity (especially among Mac users) and a seeming lack of integration with other Google tools (where are my GmailThis! and BlogThis! buttons?), I think Picasa Web Albums has a little ways to go before it gains any significant interest among Mac users.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ethem Tolga said 9:28PM on 8-02-2006
I think both of them are great. My favourite is iPhoto plug-in. Especially while Flickrexport (http://connectedflow.com/flickrexport) costs money!
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ciprol said 11:04PM on 8-02-2006
Tried it and loved the exporter feature. Personally I like Google's service and find them generous and the site designs are more comfortable on the eyes. I am sure all the other features will come, just give it time. Giving Flickr the flick from today!
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Mark Scrimshire said 11:15PM on 8-02-2006
This is a good step forward for Mac users. It doesn't make sense for Google to compete with iPhoto - A plug in for iPhoto is completely logical.
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lOUDsCREAMEr said 1:43AM on 8-03-2006
thatz kewl!! but 250MB is not quite enough.. a Flickr competitor/killer finally`~`~\?
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Chris said 5:51AM on 8-03-2006
Slight tangent : I hope there's an OSX version of Picasa in the works - the way it leaves your original images un-touched and applies any crops and effects at view-time is much nicer than iPhoto's duplicated files approach.
iPhoto is also dumb in the way it shows adjustment previews, to the point that they're not an accurate representation of the true result.
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Eric said 8:27AM on 8-03-2006
to Chris
agree.
iPhoto is crap compared with Picassa.
I bought a PC for Picassa as only this handy little google app handles my 280 Gig family RAW images well.
(yes i use canon 5d for snapshot)
iPhoto will cry for mum unless i run it in the upcoming mac pro with 4 gig ram .
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Dave Provost said 11:26AM on 8-03-2006
Windows user here. I love Picasa like crazy, and Web Albums beats uploading to Flickr by a long shot. The simplest solution to upload to Flickr is at least 3-5 minutes, compared to Web Albums which is
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Spencer said 2:06PM on 8-03-2006
I absolutely agree. Picasa is better than iPhoto. Not only does it leave the original photo untouched, it also can be configured to search an entire drive for images and not have to make duplicate copies to an "iPhoto-only" location. Plus, it's nice to be able to have the options of uploading to a variety of different photo printing locations rather than Apple.
Not to mention, iPhoto doesn't seem to be speedy with my few hundred megs of pictures, while Picasa runs smooth with over 40 gigs of photos and videos.
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