Enter anything you like - Photos possesses that same uncanny knack for finding things. As with Gmail, the prominent search bar at the top of the interface is the place to go. As the size of this database balloons thanks to that unlimited storage option, algorithms become more adept at using metadata to help people find what they’re looking for and folder structures start to become unwieldy. Inside Google Photos, all of your images are stored in a single, “flat” database - there are no folders at all. That makes Photos much more than a backup service - it’s a visual archive of your entire life that can fit in your pocket. Plus, if you use the Photos app on your smartphone or tablet, every new photo you take is automatically added to the collection. Moreover, because Photos is a cloud-based platform, you can access all of your photos on every device, everywhere you go. Google Photos essentially does for photos what Gmail did for email. Remember when Gmail came along and suddenly it just didn’t matter how well you kept your email organized? The same potent magic that made Google good at finding the right webpages was now available to help you find those buried messages. Rockets? I never labeled these photos as “rockets,” yet somehow, Google Photos knew that’s what they were. Why would I want to switch? Finding pics in Google Photos is much easier Rockets. It doesn’t even offer the most useful tool ever invented: Red-eye. Although Google Photos offers a handful of Instagram-esque filters and a number of editing tools to choose from - including those for cropping, rotating, and making contrast adjustments, among others- it’s a paltry selection compared to what Picasa provides. It’s not a big deal for minor edits like cropping, but for others, it can be a huge loss.Īnd it gets worse. That was the right way to do things in order to keep changes from being “destructive,” but it also means that short of Google uploading your Picasa database too, there’s no way to include it in your Google Photos collection. Because Picasa stores all of that information within in its own database, it isn’t embedded in your physical photo files. Virtually all of the blood, sweat, and tears you’ve invested into tasks such as photo editing and captioning are ignored in the upload process. Easy, but not painlessĪs easy as it is to get your photos into the cloud, it comes with a hefty price for Picasa users. It will eat into your total amount of available storage for your Google account. If you prefer, you can choose an uncompressed option, which lets you upload RAW files without any alterations. Did we mention that Google gives Photos users an unlimited amount of room on its servers? As long as your photos are under 16 megapixels in size, the compression that Photos performs should be virtually unnoticeable. It will take hours (or days) for all of your photos to make it to the cloud, but it happens in the background and doesn’t require any intervention on your part. To begin using Google Photos, simply download the Google Photos Backup tool, tell it where to look for your photos, and then let it do its thing. The company refers to it as “switching,” because that’s exactly how you have to think about it. That’s because - with the exception of the Web Albums feature described above - Google hasn’t created a migration path from one product to the other. There’s a reason why Google doesn’t use the term “migrate” when encouraging Picasa users to embrace Google Photos. Google has been silent on exactly when or how this could happen, though. You may also find that Picasa functions which require web connectivity, like the Order Prints or Publish to Blogger features, may fail to work at some point. You can view, download, or delete your Picasa Web Albums from the Photos interface, but as of May 1, you cannot create, organize, or edit them. If you’re curious what that will look like, simply log in to Google Photos with the Google account you used to create the web Album - and voila - they’re already there. If you’ve been taking advantage of Picasa’s free web Albums feature, as of the only way to access them is through Google Photos. If you go this route, my advice is to re-download the latest version of Picasa (3.9) for Mac or Windows right now and keep the installer somewhere safe - you never know when you may need to reinstall it and who knows how easy it will be to find later. If you want to keep using Picasa, you can absolutely do so. No, your photos won’t suddenly disappear and neither will the software itself. However, if you already have the software installed, it will continue to work. That means no more versions will be released, no bug fixes will be issued, and no support will be offered. So what does this mean for folks who still use Picasa? How to stick with Picasa, for now
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