le blog de bloogue

This week we’re exploring the use of photos on the Internet. We are to explore two web tools related to photos and then compare and contrast the tools. I tried a few of the suggested tools, but found them to be clunky and not really something I would use on a regular basis. I already use Flickr extensively which is a Yahoo! product and would like to compare to something similar such as Picasa which is a Google product. I’ve used Picasa very little throughout the last couple years but would like to know more about it.

Flickr and Picasa both have the same objective: to get your photos online to share with friends and family or the entire Internet if you wish. You can create albums, tag photos with words or geographic coordinates, order prints, add fellow users as friends or family, and several more options.

Several users on both sites use their product for personal and professional reasons. Photographers may use it to advertise their portfolio. Landscape designers may use it to show off examples of work they’ve done. A new family may use it to share photos of their newborn to the rest of their family and allow friends and family to order their own prints—whether they decide to order a 4×6 or even a poster.

My current use of Flickr is to post photos from vacations and everyday life including uploading photos from my iPhone. Many family members and friends like to drop in now and then to see what my family and I are up to. I also get contacted by people all over the world that may have questions about a photo I took on vacation to get more information about it as they’re planning on visiting the same place.

Should I choose to, I can set privacy levels high on everything I upload or on individual photos. I can set limitations on photos to only be viewable by friends, family, or to display to everyone.

If finances are tight, I’d go with Picasa. As a “free user” you’ll get 1GB of storage on Picasa and with Flickr, you can upload 2 videos and 100MB worth of photos uploaded each calendar month. Adding on extra storage will cost you. Picasa offers 20GB total for $5/year and have other annual plans for bigger sizes. With Flickr Pro, you’ll have unlimited storage for $25/year – and be able to upload up to 2GB/month, which would be a challenge for me.

I found both tools to be fairly comparable. I still prefer Flickr over Picasa. I believe they’re both very good tools but I just am used to the interface for Flickr and don’t find Picasa any easier to use as a whole.

http://picasaweb.google.com/bradley.johnston/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trypnotic/