Google competing with Smugmug, et. al.?

ChrisJ

Google Puts Photos on the Web [zdnet.com]

I signed up for an invite... From the info page:
Quick facts

• Cost: The latest version of Picasa with the Web Albums feature is free. It’s also free to use Picasa Web Albums for posting, sharing and viewing photos.
• Access: You need an invitation to post and share photos on Picasa Web Albums. You can sign up for an invitation using your Gmail username. No invitation or sign-in is required to view a friend’s photos online.
• Storage: Each Picasa Web Albums account comes with 250MB of free storage space, or room to post and share approximately 1,000 wallpaper-sized photos (at 1600 pixels each). For $25.00 per year, users can get a subscription to an additional 6GB of storage – room to post and share approximately 25,000 photos.
• There are no ads in Picasa or on Picasa Web Albums
• Language: Picasa Web Albums and the latest version of Picasa with web uploading are supported in English only
• System requirements:
  • Picasa: Windows 2000/XP, Internet Explorer 6.0+
  • Picasa Web Albums Internet Explorer 6.0 (also works with IE 7 Beta 2), Firefox 1.0+ or Safari 2.0

docwalker

It will be a while before they compete with Smugmugs professional services.

Also, good luck finding support like Andy, Baldy, and the gang from google.

They might take away some of the people seeking "free" services. I know people that the Picasa service would be good for. But, I will still point them to SM first.

ChrisJ

docwalker wrote:

It will be a while before they compete with Smugmugs professional services.

Also, good luck finding support like Andy, Baldy, and the gang from google.

They might take away some of the people seeking "free" services. I know people that the Picasa service would be good for. But, I will still point them to SM first.

Agreed, Pro services are most likely unaffected. And the service here is unquestionably the best in the business. I'm certainly not giving up my account any time soon; and I recommend SM every chance I get.

But Google is already a portal for a lot of people. If they can integrate an effective photo sharing service with e-mail/chat/etc, then that convenience could sway the average joe-user.

Interesting enough to take a look at... though I've never been a big Picasa fan.

asd

I got in on the Picasa Web test...
I haven't had much time to play yet, but it looks like the new version of Picasa integrates with Google Earth to allow for easy geocoding of photos, finally giving me the simple route I've wanted (doing it through smugmug is fine, but I'd like to have the data stored in my originals before I upload them to smugmug). I still am annoyed that Bridge won't let me manually set that data, but this will be much easier if it works.

I'm not leaving smugmug any time soon, but I can see how the Picasa+Picasa Web combo might be just what some beginners need, especially those already using Picasa: easily share photos via email (it resizes them to a reasonable size automagically) or web using the interface they're already using to browse and organize their photos. This is the kind of thing my grandma, who doesn't take many photos or use the web that heavily, could use.

TylerW

even for $25, 6gb of storage can't compare with SmugMug's unlimited storage and archival services. It's still the best service, hands down.

claudermilk

Personally, I place Picasa under the "you get what you pay for" category.

mr peas

smugmug is a very personal archival site where you can directly contact their support group and get results within an hour! the direct-personal help from SM is very valuable, ive only experienced SM through the prize i received from winning one of the dgrin challenges and they were able to fix some problems of my order and did it within a reasonable amount of time, while directly emailing me througout the process, keeping in touch the entire time.

however, competition is always good. it might lower the prices of SM's hosting services and get new ideas from the new google service and implement it into SM. i still havent seen a site like SM's pro account where you can resell prints for whatever price you want and keep track of it throught the site and have the site do all the paying-receipt-shipping for you.

you get what you pay for, free is good, but it isnt always the best!

heinz e

Flipping photos in an album with arrow keys

ChrisJ wrote:

Google Puts Photos on the Web [zdnet.com]

I have tried it. A convenient detail:

Flipping around photos with left/right arrow in the web album
is very nice. That is not available for Smugmug is it?
Up/down arrow could also be put to use for moving 10 photos
up/down or alternatively switching album.

SpeshulEd

TylerW wrote:

even for $25, 6gb of storage can't compare with SmugMug's unlimited storage and archival services. It's still the best service, hands down.

Nothing competes with SmugMug in that category. I think a flikr pro account is $25 a month, I couldn't believe it. SmugMug is better hands down in every way possible.

flyingpylon

The bottom line is that there is no *best* service. There is only the best service for *you*. Everyone has slightly different wants/needs, etc. and given the zillions of digital photos being produced every minute, there is enough room in the marketplace for hundreds of photo sharing sites (or more) to do well.

By the way, Flickr is $25 per year, not per month.

SpeshulEd

flyingpylon wrote:

By the way, Flickr is $25 per year, not per month.

hey, you're right. well i swear i just saw an ad the other day that said $25 a month. I thought they were a bit off their rocker for that price. this makes more sense.