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September 19, 2006

Picasa Web Albums - No Invitation Required



I've already posted that Picasa 2.5 is out of beta, but now it's official.

"I have 80,000 photos in Picasa, Google's free photo organizer, but most of my friends haven't had a chance to see them yet. That's why I'm so excited about the new version of Picasa that came out today. It has a feature called Picasa Web Albums that lets you post and share your photos online for free with just one click. You can show the world (or just your friends and family) what kinds of pictures you've been taking. And best of all, you can even download your friends' online photos right back to Picasa," says a Picasa engineer.

Since it was launched, Picasa Web Albums has added new features. Now you can add your friends, view their recently uploaded photos, link to your friends' albums on the homepage of your album. You can also embed photos and albums into blogs, even though this feature still needs some work (embedded photos are too small, embedded albums should display random photos). And, best of all, Picasa Web Albums doesn't need invitation anymore.

If you have a Gmail Google Account, you can try it at http://picasaweb.google.com. If you don't have an account or you just want to see a sample, visit this album.

8 comments:

  1. You have to be kidding. So I update my private holiday or family pix and they publish them to the world.

    By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through Picasa Web Albums, you grant Google a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, distribute and publish such Content through Picasa Web Albums, including RSS or other content feeds offered through Picasa Web Albums, and other Google services. In addition, by submitting, posting or displaying Content which is intended to be available to the general public, you grant Google a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to reproduce, adapt, distribute and publish such Content for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting Google services. Google will discontinue this licensed use within a commercially reasonable period after such Content is removed from Picasa Web Albums. Google reserves the right to refuse to accept, post, display or transmit any Content in its sole discretion.

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  2. hehe, i've been playing around with Web Albums for a little bit, its pretty damn good actually :D

    Its very easy to upload stuff to your album.

    I just need to find something useful for it now... :|
    I should upload some of my art work and CG work.

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  3. You CAN'T post private albums. You can just make them unlisted, so that they don't appear on your homepage. If someone knows or guesses the URL of an unlisted album, he has access to it.

    And about your out-of-context quote from the TOS, it's probably the first TOS you read. Also read YouTube's TOS, that says the same legal stuff at 5.B. You allow them to distribute your content, embed it in other sites or use it to promote their service.

    You also omitted to copy the essential sentence:

    "Google claims no ownership or control over any Content submitted, posted or displayed by you on or through Picasa Web Albums."

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  4. Things that would drastically improve PWA:
    * Private albums. Maybe it's contrary to Google's "All information for everyone" intention, but it's still a question of peace of mind for those galleries i either don't want to share, or don't want someone to guess the URL of as i share with specific people.
    * As Spreadsheets now can, allow me to send my gallery links to people in my GMail contacts
    * For all those public galleries out there, i can't seem to find an easy way to browse them. i can only view "My Favorites" of people i already know about. Which is no one since there's no way to browse public galleries.
    * It's nice that the Google guy quoted in this piece can upload all 80,000 of his Picasa photos to share with friends and family. Too bad the rest of us can't get all 80,000 photos into a 250MB storage space.

    Just my thoughts.

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  5. Scratch #2. i see it already does that.

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  6. Even though the invitaion requirement is off now, there wasnt any real 'invitation' required sometime back. Just type your email and you were allowed to use the test version immediately.

    With my camera producing filesizes of 2.0MB - 2.5MB, I can only upload just a little over 110 photos !
    Y! Photos beta seems to have no limit on space and bandwidth.

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  7. Are you now able to get a Web Album with just a Google account, or do you still need a Gmail account?

    Tony

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  8. You don't need a Gmail account anymore.

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