Photo Hosting Website

joebedford wrote:
I just signed up to photobucket and got hit with a video ad. Does adblock work on this site?

Beats me. I have Ad Aware so I've never seen it.. :)

Also note that Picasa itself will no longer be supported. I found it to be the easiest way to organize and do simple editing with photos stored on my computer. Their site says if you have downloaded it you can still use it...but no more support. I haven't found any other program that does what it does. But I guess storage on a hard drive is going to the cloud and I have to get with it. Personally, I want to save my stuff on my drives--not in the cloud. Call me old fashioned.

SoundGuy wrote:
So as it relates to my simple requirements for storing pics in albums, being able to easily sort those pics and albums as I want them, and the ability to link to those pics from an online forum such as rv.net, what's the difference between Google Photos (which to me seems ridiculously unmanageable) and Google Drive which I guess I'm already on anyway as that's (I assume) where my Gmail account content lives? In fact, if Google Drive and Google Photos "are basically the same thing" why would I need Google Photos at all? :h

My point was, and I didn't state it very clearly, that Google Drive does not bring anything to the table as far as photo management is concerned. Google Drive is Google's cloud storage platform for their apps. Most if not all Google apps ride on top of that platform. Gmail, as you point out, Google Photos, Google Docs, Google Sheets, etc. etc. ride on top of Google Drive cloud storage.

Linking to a photo in Google Photos on any website (like RV.net) is simple:

Click on the "Share" icon on the left at top right of photo


Click on Get link


Copy the link and paste it into the link window on a website


To me, Google Photos is a much cleaner interface than Picasa Web Albums but it is a different interface as would be any other photo program.

As far as sorting albums, I was surprised that you can't change the sort order. But I have enough albums that I don't see much advantage to any other order. Searching is a bit of a mystery but I have found that as you get used to Google Photos you can do about anything after a little experimentation.

PicasaWeb is going away because it was designed before Google had a cloud based platform. The only thing that will be going away is the PicasaWeb interface to your photos. The photos are all already in Google Photos on their cloud. My photos all showed up in Google Photos with no action on my part. Either interface accesses them now and nothing was lost in the migration, i.e. captions and all other photo attributes. And, uploading photos to Google Photos from Picasa works just like it did to Picasa Web Albums.

Whether you move to Google Photos or another program there will be a learning curve.

A little online reading makes it clear I'm far from the only one really annoyed that Google is discontinuing Picasaweb. :M If I understand correctly my Picasaweb albums will still be available for viewing my pics but not for uploading or editing after May 1, 2016. In the meantime I've discovered that if I upload additional pics to my Google Photos albums and add text to those pics that those pics and the included text also show up in the same albums, in the same order, on my existing Picasaweb albums. The question is whether this workaround would still work after May 1. :h

There is an informative YouTube video from Feb 2016 that discusses some basic info and leads into discussion about the outgoing Picasa web albums and the new Google+ albums.

Around the 42:00 mark the question is asked whether the Picasa web albums will cease to exist and what happens if you have linked albums or photo's to a blog. They believe that the picasa web albums will be archived...in that you can look at the photo's but can not "manage", edit or add to, them. The links to blogger supposedly will still work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNMayP-t5u8&feature=youtu.beGeeks on Tour: #71 - Picasa is Retiring. Should I Switch to Google Photos?

sherlock62 wrote:
Microsoft One drive
Google Drive
Amazon Photos

AsheGuy wrote:
Google Drive and Google Photos are basically the same thing. Google Photos are based on Google's Cloud, i.e. Google Drive.

So as it relates to my simple requirements for storing pics in albums, being able to easily sort those pics and albums as I want them, and the ability to link to those pics from an online forum such as rv.net, what's the difference between Google Photos (which to me seems ridiculously unmanageable) and Google Drive which I guess I'm already on anyway as that's (I assume) where my Gmail account content lives? In fact, if Google Drive and Google Photos "are basically the same thing" why would I need Google Photos at all? :h

sherlock62 wrote:
Microsoft One drive
Google Drive
Amazon Photos

Google Drive and Google Photos are basically the same thing. Google Photos are based on Google's Cloud, i.e. Google Drive.

I agree that the evolution of Google's photo cloud is sometimes a mystery. But I still find it meets my needs especially as I use it more.

As stated, captions are available using the "i" icon.

Albums (collections) cannot be sorted (yet) as you want, but a simple Ctrl-F search easily finds the one I want based on the title.

Picasa can still be used for managing photos on a PC, then upload those you want to the cloud from Picasa.

I have a Photobucket account, but seldom use it as I find Google Photos more to my liking. I am pretty sure other options would work also but it boils down to what application suite meets ones needs the best.

So far I find Google's suite is the most comprehensive and meets my needs the best, hence my preference for Google Photos. Apple and Microsoft both have competing suites, but at more cost and as far as I can tell not with more function. They just have different user interfaces and in both cases even more lock-in then with Google.

Just did an upload to SmugMug and then did a search to see how to move albums from Picasa web albums directly into SmugMug... https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/picasa/2rMVcI1nVnY

Migrating Picasa albums to SmugMug

This is an ongoing post... answering a question posted months ago. Scan down to the March 5th post and they discuss successfully moving albums WITH CAPTIONS with smuggler and Firefox.

That is as far as I am right now with it.

I've uploaded an album from my computer to SmugMug and now I'll migrate the same album of photo's from Picasa albums to SmugMug albums... and see if the captions move across with the photo's.

The suggestion is made to just leave things as they are until May 1st to see what Google does with Picasa web albums... they may just leave it be but not support it.