I’m having some trouble deciding whether to use Flickr or Picasa Web Albums. I take a lot of photos, and I really want to be able to share them easily and quickly. Both apps meet my key requirements, which are probably similar for most people:
- easy to order prints
- relatively simple to upload
- well known companies, implying I can trust them
- well known services, implying my friends can find them
Beyond the basics, though, each service features key differences. In general, Flickr is much more feature-rich, has a much larger user and is vastly more extendable. When a new, related but not identical app appears, one question it must face is “how do I interact with Flickr?” For instance, when blogger was going through its growth, many users requested a way to add a Flickr badge to their blog. Blogger provided the option, as it probably had to. I don’t think that same demand applies to Web Albums. Flickr has tags, buddy icons, advice on related things (e.g. cameras), and is, in general much more of a social networking site.
Web Albums comes with very different perks. Actually really just one perk right now. I can upload incredibly easily with Picasa, Google’s image organizing software. For you Apple people, you can upload just as easily through iPhoto. Flickr beats Web Albums, but Picasa absolutely destroys Flickr. “But Sam, it’s a desktop app, of course it does”. I will answer this one time: if the AJAX people (read: Google and now Yahoo!) want to sell their online apps as merely apps, and don’t want to distinguish from desktop apps, then they get both edges of the sword. Picasa beats Flickr in speed, features, ease of use, familiarity, search and basically anything else.
So I’m in a pickle. What I really want are the web-features of Flickr on Web Albums, or the ease-of-upload from Picasa to Flickr. (an aside, this sort of exists. It’s a pain and not nearly easy enough for me, old lazy-bones Sam.) In typing this post, I’ve reaffirmed my decision to stay with Picasa/Web Albums. My Picasa is very organized, just they way I’d expect it to be, and for now I will deal with the lack of social networking in my pictures. Maybe when Facebook is out of my life, I will need to change my mind.
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