Photo Hosting Website

SoundGuy wrote:
With Picasaweb just one link takes whomever clicks on it to all 5 albums where they can then select the one they may be interested in. I just don't see a way of accomplishing the same thing with Google Photos.

AsheGuy wrote:
I don't see how access like you want (no login required and open access to multiple albums) would allow any kind of privacy protection on desired albums.

Well this is what I do currently with my Picasaweb account which has multiple albums but only 5 of which are designated public. If I log in myself then I can obviously see all the albums and edit them but if anyone else clicks on this link embedded in my rv.net SIG they can only ever see the 5 public albums. Obviously there are reasons I can't do this with Google Photos as I can with Picasaweb but it's nevertheless annoying from my users point of view. :M

Thanks for your input. Looks like about the only way I can accomplish what I want with Google Photos is to either list multiple links in my rv.net SIG to the current 5 public albums I'd like to be available to anyone who clicks on those links OR collate all the pics from those albums into one larger album and include a link to that one album in my SIG. Both poor alternatives IMO. :(

SoundGuy wrote:
With Picasaweb just one link takes whomever clicks on it to all 5 albums where they can then select the one they may be interested in. I just don't see a way of accomplishing the same thing with Google Photos.

When Google's photo app was a part of Google+, you could share albums with everyone (public), or with your "circles" such as family, friends, etc. Facebook works the same way. And, all albums that you share to a social network can be seen by the logged in user. The disadvantage of this method is that obviously, you cannot share albums with people unless they are members of the social network that you choose to use.

Google Photos (since being separated from Google+ which I think was a very good change) does not have an authentication process. So an album owner can provide a link to an album that allows access to anyone with access to that link. Or, they can share the album through a social network such as FB or Google+ that does have a login requirement. Then access is limited to those that are "friends" in the social network.

This may seem cumbersome, but in my mind it works better than the alternatives. I don't see how access like you want (no login required and open access to multiple albums) would allow any kind of privacy protection on desired albums. In other words, I don't think you can or will ever be able to do what you want with Google Photos. And, I would be surprised if you can do it with any other cloud based photo host.

In Picasa Web you can share albums as Public, but you still have to send a link to a single album to the person you want to share it with. And then (I haven't used Picasa Web in some time) when you finish viewing that album Picasa Web asks if you want to see other albums from the same person from several offered as an option. This may work fine if you only have five albums, but not if that person has a lot of public albums. As I remember, there is no way to easily find specific other albums.

SoundGuy wrote:
As far as I can tell I can only link to one album, not multiple albums ... anyone have a workaround for this? :h

AsheGuy wrote:
I just added a 2nd link to my signature and it worked fine. How are you trying to do it? My Forums / My Preferences?

Yeah, My Forums / My Preferences. Sure, I could add a second link but with 5 different albums it's not practical to add 5 separate links. With Picasaweb just one link takes whomever clicks on it to all 5 albums where they can then select the one they may be interested in. I just don't see a way of accomplishing the same thing with Google Photos.

SoundGuy wrote:
OK, so aside from having some issues with my Macbook Pro that I've now overcome I've managed to figure out how to access and bookmark various albums I have in Google Photos even without being logged in AND be able to post individual pics in those albums either as a link or a pic embedded into one of my rv.net posts, like this. Although I'm not particularly crazy about the Google Photos interface, how it looks, or the fact that text belonging to each pic isn't visible unless one clicks on the Info button I guess I can live with it considering it's a "free" service. However, where I am stuck is how I can link to just more than one album in my rv.net SIG as I do now on Picasaweb. As far as I can tell I can only link to one album, not multiple albums ... anyone have a workaround for this? :h

I just added a 2nd link to my signature and it worked fine. How are you trying to do it? My Forums / My Preferences?

OK, so aside from having some issues with my Macbook Pro that I've now overcome I've managed to figure out how to access and bookmark various albums I have in Google Photos even without being logged in AND be able to post individual pics in those albums either as a link or a pic embedded into one of my rv.net posts, like this. Although I'm not particularly crazy about the Google Photos interface, how it looks, or the fact that text belonging to each pic isn't visible unless one clicks on the Info button I guess I can live with it considering it's a "free" service. However, where I am stuck is how I can link to just more than one album in my rv.net SIG as I do now on Picasaweb. As far as I can tell I can only link to one album, not multiple albums ... anyone have a workaround for this? :h

Dropbox has a photo album feature - been around for a while. I don't use it, so just Google Dropbox Photo for info. Here is an older post about the album feature.

AsheGuy wrote:
I assume you have a good reason to have photos in two different accounts so importing photos from one account into the other is not an option.

I do have a good reason for two accounts. The main which I've owned for years is these days primarily for email, photos originally loaded into that account via Picasaweb are now not relevant for public display, just private viewing. I later set up a second account, never use it for email but do use it for hosting my current SoundGuy pics via Picasaweb. On a daily basis I'm always logging into the main account for email but rarely anymore for the pics, the second account is for pics only via Picasaweb which I do work with on a regular basis. It's a PITA now that Google has decided to discontinue Picasaweb and migrated all my pics to Google Photos which doesn't suit my needs at all. At least now I have an alternative in SmugMug where I'd likely merge all of my Picasaweb pics into one account for easier access and the ability to designate which albums are public and which are private. Google obviously has their reasons but it's clear a lot of people really liked Picasaweb and will now be looking for a viable alternative that has nothing to do with Google ... way to go Google! :M

SoundGuy wrote:

My issue is that I have more than one Google account and the account holding my RVing pics is not my main account. I'm currently using Safari and have it set to go to my main Gmail account as that's what I first check every time I sit down with the computer ... and that in turn means that if I go to Google Photos it goes to those albums associated with that account rather than my secondary account which holds my RV pics. To overcome this I first have to log out of my main account and log into the secondary account but what I want to do is not have to log in at all when all I want to do is look at my pics, just as I've done with your pics. I'm guessing this has something to do with "sharing" the album? :h

You can sign into two Gmail accounts at once, check this link. You can then click between accounts just by clicking on the account photo (or initial if no photo) in upper right of the Google Photos window and click again on the account you want to view. Pretty painless. I can do this in Google Chrome but it surely works the same in Safari. When I have two Google accounts open in Chrome and then bookmark the page, when I open Chrome again and click on that bookmark, Both accounts are logged in and I can pick either one without logging in. I haven't experimented enough with this to see if holds over a reboot, etc.

I assume you have a good reason to have photos in two different accounts so importing photos from one account into the other is not an option.

louiskathy wrote:
I have just spent the day... six hours... moving 180 albums (over 5,000 photos) from Picasa WEB to Smugmug. Everything moved intact with captions and inserted YouTube links that were in some of the captions.

SoundGuy wrote:
Thanks for this detailed update but my question still remains - do you have to be logged into your new (in this case, Smugmug) account to even see your pics as it seems is the case with Google Photos? I want to be able to just click one tab on my Favorites bar and link to my albums with no logging in, just as I can with Picasaweb.

louiskathy wrote:
If you set them to "public" anyone can see them, including you, if you go to your home page. You don't have to log in to see them. you'd only have to log in to upload, edit, or manage the pics.

You should do a test to see how they arrange themselves... and how you can set them to be viewed.. by file name or modified date or created date. Picasa has folders... so does smugmug. Smugmug also has galleries which can be tucked inside a folder.

Once you name and set a folder as open to the public...all the galleries under that folder inherit that security setting unless you change it.

Thanks for the info, it looks like Smugmug may do the trick. :)

This is a PUBLIC shared album on Picasa with captions. This is my Picasa WEB album.

same album on Smugmug - public visibiity
(SMUGMUG - note that the captions came with the transfer because I used Smugglr to bring them over to Smugmug.)

Google+ album of the same album. Google+ album - Captions to each photo did not transfer from Picasa automatically. I can add text to the ALBUM but not to individual pictures.