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July 2, 2011

How Google+ Transformed Picasa Web

Even though it's not obvious, after you enable Google+ in your Google account, Picasa Web turns into a completely new app with a different set of rules. Some of these rules make Google's photo sharing service unusable for many existing users and it's important to know them in advance.

Picasa Web's face recognition feature helped you organize your photos. The integration between Picasa Web and Google Contacts made it easy to associate your photos with some of your contacts. By the default, the name tags from your public albums were hidden, but you could also hide the name tags from unlisted albums. When you join Google+, all of this changes. Adding a name tag to a photo is no longer a private action: your contact will get a notification that you tagged him. He will get access to your photo and to the entire album that includes the photo.

"You'll receive an email letting you know you've been tagged in a photo. By default, name tags by people in your circles are automatically approved. You can view or remove tags at any time on the photos homepage in Google+ as well as the Photos tab on your Google profile," informs Google. Name tags change their visibility too: if you have access to an album, you can see all the name tags from that album. You're not the only one who can add tags to your photos: anyone in your extended network at Google+ (friends and friends of friends) can add tags.

While these changes could improve Google's face recognition software and allow Google to add new social features, transforming Picasa Web's private tagging into Facebook's photo tagging is a radical shift. Sharing an entire album with someone just because you've added a tag is something that might baffle a lot of Picasa Web users who don't realize that Picasa Web is now Google+ Photos.

The good news is that the existing name tags remain unchanged and your contacts won't be able to see your albums just because you've tagged them at some point. But that's true only for the name tags added before joining Google+.


The new version of Picasa Web for Google+ has another drawback: you can't comment on a photo of a Google+ user if you don't have a Google+ account. Even if the photo is included in a public album, it's still not possible to write a comment without joining Google+. The explanation is that "comments on photos are shared across Picasa Web Albums and Google+".

I suspect that joining Google+ will be required if you want to use Picasa Web Albums. As Alexander Kunz noticed, this is similar to an update that required users to link Picasa Web with Google Profiles to be able to add comments or share photos. "I think it's pretty safe to say that qualifies as blackmailing. In the end, the users won: after a storm of protest in the Picasa help forums, the requirement was taken away," says Alexander. It's clear that it was just a temporary victory.


Now when you share an album with your contacts, they're allowed to reshare it with other people, so you can no longer tightly control the visibility of an album without constantly monitoring the access list. Google Docs has a similar rule, but you can change the sharing settings so that "only the owner can change the permissions." Google has an explanation: "to encourage the natural flow of conversation, once you sign up for Google+, all albums can be reshared by people that have access to the album - those people on the album's 'Shared with' list in Picasa Web Albums."

It's worth pointing out that the new Picasa Web adds some benefits (unlimited free storage for photos up to 2048 x 2048 pixels, easier photo sharing) and that you can migrate your photos to a different Google Account, but it's sad to see that Picasa Web is now a Google+ app which no longer works well standalone and that users can no longer use advanced features without sharing their photos.

88 comments:

  1. sharing one photo shares the entire album. this is trouble.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is why I don't have a facebook account, picasa, or google plus. There is no control who can see your pictures, and your pictures can be used by others for something else.

      Delete
    2. there is an option to lock the share so that it cannot be reshared !

      Delete
  2. Personally I use the nametags for organisational purposes. I don't need people I've tagged to suddenly be emailed and able to see the entire album... I just want to organise my photos! Every day since the Google+ announcement, I'm finding out that another product that I love is being spoilt and made less useful to me.

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  3. For me, Picasa web albums are my back-up for photos, and I pay for additional space for it.
    None of my albums are public and I never intended I did spend a lot of time adding name tags to a lot of people, and now I have the choice of spending a lot of time removing the again - or stay out of Google plus.

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  4. Thanks for the information. I've have not yet been able to sign up for Google+, and now I'm actually a bit glad. Even though I see some of the reasons and benefits for what you mention in the article, I also find it a bit disturbing: especially that *anybody* I tag in a photo will get access to the whole album, and that *everybody* with access can also share the album to others as well.

    I thought Google+ was something I would like to jump on straight away, but now it seems like I have to give it some extra consideration. At least what I upload (and who I tag) in the future...

    @Anonymous: you shouldn't have to worry about old photos with tags. I believe it is only for newly uploaded photos after joining Google+ that tagged persons automatically will get access.

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  5. Yes, this is a very bad idea and it goes even against what Google+ claims: "more control on what you share". I hope they re-think these "features" a bit more.

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  6. This assures that I will never again tag another face, nor will I share a single image from a private album. I won't give up on Google+, but I won't let them Facebook me either.

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  7. I agree, that's a bad intrusion in my privacy.

    I archive my photos in chronological order. If for example the teacher of my son is tagged in one photo he gets access to the 999 other photos ?!?!

    I have two questions:
    - Is there a way back without deleting the whole Google account?
    - What happens if I tag a photo with Picasa?

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  8. New rules seem to encourage "one party/event = one album" usage pattern, so tagged users will have access to an album of an event they already witnessed live :)

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  9. I think they should reconsider these settings. Though Google promises not to repeat the 'Buzz' mistake, looks like they are compromising on privacy for the sake of enabling more information flow.

    For things like photos, users don't prefer more information flow, rather a tight control on who gets to see it.

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  10. If Google+ becomes a requirement for Picasa Web, then I just won't be using Picasa Web (or perhaps anything from Google).

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  11. People able to share the photos that are shared with them invalidates the whole concept of circles. Suppose I share an album with one circle. If anybody in that circle can share the photo with anybody else in the world, my album is no longer limited to just the one circle. This is a very bad idea.

    Everybody - Please urge Google to limit this ability for people to share photos or albums that don't belong to them and that have been shared with them privately.

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  12. STOP STOP STOP! HE IS WRONG!

    The way this works is rather simple, and totally secures the privacy of all other albums. In fact, it does not impact or effect your other albums AT ALL. Let me say that again. This DOES NOT effect your picasa web albums, of which I have over 50, with about 9000 photos that are all private.

    Here is how it works
    --------------------------------------
    When you sign up for Google+, which I have, you get a brand new album called "Photos from posts". This album and this album alone is a public sharing space. You can not control its settings. Every time you share a photo, whether it is from your "Instant Upload" album (this is the PRIVATE album where all your Android Phone videos and photos are uploaded to) or any other location, the shared photo is copied to your "Photos from posts" album. So, the only album that is every forced to be public is the "photos from posts" album.

    This changed DOES NOT effect your picasa web albums what so ever. Shared photos are COPIED TO a public album and DO NOT make there original album public.

    I hope that cleared this up.

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  13. Thanks for the heads-up. I have now deleted all my albums and uninstalled Picasa from my system.

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  14. Well, I guess this will do one of two things...Either Google will change the whole "sharing" rules so that people have more control over their privacy where photos are concerned, or people will stop sharing photos all together, which will defeat the whole purpose of Google+. I would hate to have to make new albums with one photo in each of them to make sure no one other photos are shared out without my permission. seems to me Google didn't think this through very well!

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  15. EntrepreNerd - thank you for the information. That does make things a bit better than what I was hearing in this story. It didn't seem like this is Google either. I still think we should be able to share out a single photo to a single person if we choose to do so. Oh well, maybe that will be a feature down the road.

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  16. @EnterpreNord:

    What you say doesn't contradict this post. I only mentioned three features and even linked to the Google help center pages that provide more details. When you add a name tag, you're sharing the entire album with your contact. That's because Picasa Web can only set per-album permissions. Your comment is about the photos shared in Google+.

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  17. Well, I think EnterpreNerd and Alex Chitu are bouth talking about diferent things. You, EnterpreNerd, are talking about what happens to new photos you upload and share in google+ and the fact that de old albums and photos privacy settings from picasa aren't change, and Alex is talking about what happens to that old albums and photos (or even new ones) when you tag or share one of them. I'm not sure of this because I don't have any google+ invite so I can't try it myself.

    In any case, I think Alex is right because that's what google says in it's picasa web help page:

    http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=1306701

    "Tagging is sharing

    The person tagged will be given permission to view the album, and they’ll also then have the ability to share it. Learn more"

    Even the title shows the philosophy of that feature.

    And I am with all of you guys who think this is a terrible idea and go against the google+ philisophy of "controlled sharing"

    Maybe you Alex could get our comlains to the google+ team better than us, mere mortal "comenters".

    PD: And if you alow me one last complein, I'm sick of my friends sharing photos of myself (not only myself, of course) with everybody and many times making them public. Normaly are party photos that haven't make any problem to me YET at my work, but if this tendency goes on it will. And I can't do nothing because they are their photos, taken with their camera, and they want to share them. So I would like a feature that if I check it, google would blur may face only to the people not in my circles and the people in my circles that I choose. It would be like a dinamic, or personal blur, so my friends would see the photo perfectly but othe peole no.

    Thanks for reading.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Oh!, Alex, you have answered while I was writing my coment. English is no my mother lenguage so it takes me a while. I think I need to improve my English, or at least speed it up.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I chose PWA over Flickr because of a lot of privacy concerns I have with Flickr. I am going to closely monitor this. I only tag photos with certain family members' names.

    But if PWA/Google+ becomes like Facebook, then I will stop paying for additional storage and consider using Smugmug to store my photos online.

    Google, please don't screw this up!!!

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  20. I think that combining Picasa's face recognition technology (which works amazingly well) with all the personal information in social networks is a major step, and could be dangerous. How long before we'll be able to take a photo of a stranger in the street or in a bar, search for that person's face on Google, and find out all about him/her? We should all think carefully before going down this road. This old blog post has some more thoughts on this: http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2010-01-10-n86.html

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  21. Shame on Google !
    This is a dangerous step into privacy issues.

    1. I am strongly against "reshare album" feature !
    2. A friend I tagged on a photo should see ONLY this photo. NOT the entire album !
    3. These 2 points could be options, but absolutly not default feature !
    4. All of us are against that and scandalise.
    SHAME ON GOOGLE !

    ReplyDelete
  22. Im also strongly against this and it needs to be changed! I created a topic on this in the Picasa Web Album Forum here:
    http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Picasa/thread?tid=52e06725a97fe570&hl=en

    ReplyDelete
  23. I agree that "A friend I tagged on a photo should see ONLY this photo. NOT the entire album."
    someone has said that what's written ib the article isn't completely correct concerning that point, when i get plus i'll see.

    But concerning the second problem, when you share an album with someone, why wouldn't he be able to reshare it with whoever he wants?
    when you go to a party you don't know all the people there, they're not all in your circles but they appear on the photos you've taken, i cobsider that it is normal thay they can access these photos.
    It is like without google +. If you email a photo to someone, he may show it to his wife only, but he also can post it publicly over the web with your face tagged on it.
    The only thing google can do is not to let out-of-my-selected-circles-people see my name on photos i an tagged on.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Concerning the hability of commenting photos linked to google plus i consider not it is a scandalous.
    i mean, picasa web is a photos storing place, not a social network with commenting options.

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  25. i can't even sign up for google+ =(

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  26. A simple workaround:

    When you label a person in a photo from now on, simply add a marker so that the system doesn't tie the name to your contact list. Instead of writing "John Smith," just write "John Smith*"

    ReplyDelete
  27. "someone has said that what's written ib the article isn't completely correct concerning that point"

    Dude, it even says so in the screenshot from the application. Also:

    http://www.google.com/support/+/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=1257351&answer=1254833

    "When you add a name tag to a photo, you're letting viewers know who’s in that photo. You’re also informing people you’ve name tagged that a photo of them has been posted. Name tagging a person also lets them access the photo and the related album."

    You shouldn't trust that "someone" in the future.

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  28. Facebook now is more secure than Google for photos storing... lol

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  29. Does anyone know if A shared his album with B, B can see the cover photo of the album but does that cover photo can be seen by all in the circle

    ReplyDelete
  30. Alex i found picasa web in my googleapps acount and other stuff like: reader, maps, youtube, bloger etc. all of this been accesible from the black bar on the top.

    ReplyDelete
  31. "Great post Jay!!!
    Great post and thanks for the share.
    If +1 works, it will not only improve search quality, but also make ads more engaging. This may potentially improve Google’s ads, and eventually may turn into a core social product that can expand in new directions.We have to wait and watch!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  32. I'm a happy one, who can sign up to google +
    Great place!
    And thanks for the post - nice to know about the changes

    ReplyDelete
  33. Privacy means nothing these days if you tag a friend and you don't want them to see the rest of the album they're not really a friend... :)

    ReplyDelete
  34. PWA and name tags is horribly broken right now.

    My GMail contacts are fine, so is my People Manager in Picasa (most of the time), however I still see people on the "People in my photos" page on PWA that have no photos assigned to them, more still I cannot remove them.

    If I sign out of Picasa then sign back in, all the contacts are downloaded to the people manager, if I remove them, they do not get removed from PWA.

    The addition of Google+ has made things worse, those contacts can be used to tag people in PWA and Google+, but not in Picasa meaning I am getting duplicate contacts showing in Picasa.

    It's a mess!

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  35. We just try to explore Google+ since this week starting from our Realtime Popular News blog, and found this very helpful.

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  36. I got the following answer when commenting on this in another blog (http://androidandme.com/2011/07/news/android-and-me-staff-looks-back-at-first-few-days-with-google/):

    =====
    While that is the default setting (and it’s VERY clearly explained exactly what permissions others receive by default), it is an incredibly simple setting change to solve this “problem”. It is literally a drop down menu and a single click.

    This is nothing to be worried about, and the change is local to the album, or to the post you share the picture in, so those awesome pics of your crew at the beach? Share away! Those awesome pics of your crew at the club, after the beach? The ones where you had one to many Long Island Ice Teas? Lock ‘em down!
    =====

    If anybody, perhaps Alex Chitu, could comment/verify this, that would be really helpful (and a bit relieving, if it is correct).

    ReplyDelete
  37. @John D:

    First of all, this is not an optional feature, so there's no setting to change it. You can't share a single photo without sharing an album and your contacts are notified when you tag them. Picasa used to have some settings for name tags, but they're removed after joining Google+.

    As I already mentioned, this is not about Google+ posts or Google+ albums, it's about Picasa Web Albums.

    ReplyDelete
  38. People ... it is still possible to keep your albums private. They will not be shared automatically. If you tag someone just make sure the tag doesn't match up with their username if they have one, all safe.

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  39. anyone have extra invite pls kuntau17 [at] gmail.com.. thx

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  40. I've actually wanted to give automatic access to photos and the albums containing those photos to people tagged in them since I started using facial recognition on Picasa.
    I guess I should be careful what I wish for, since, as a matter of course, I expected that when such a feature was rolled out it would contain granular privacy controls. Google's web apps team needs to go strictly opt-in going forward.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Does anyone know if the older quotas for Picasa Web are now just defunct? If I add photos from Google+, they don:t really count toward a quota, right? What about if I add them directly to Picasa?

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  42. Hi, i can't sign up google+, please help me

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  43. I actually paid for Google storage and now I don't feel comfortable using it because I want complete control over privacy settings. Google does NOT have the legal authority to give other people the right to reshare images whom I do not authorize. I still own the copyright to my own images and if I want to say "only person A can view it" then "person A" should not be allowed to reshare my intellectual property. I don't care what convuluted excuse Google makes up: At the end of the day it's my rights being trampled on.

    I will cease to spend any money on any kind of Google storage until Google respects my legal rights and my privacy interests.

    ReplyDelete
  44. As a blogger this is quite annoying. I wanted to join google plus but when 1) they asked me to enable and make my entire albums public i wondered if google had lost it's mind. Why would I make them all public if i wanted some of them private. I do not want my albums linked at all to google plus, and i wish I used another sites albums so now I could join google+

    2) theyre shutting down pseudonyms and want people to use their real names, or you can apply for verification. pretty crazy cause a lot of bloggers dont use real names.

    ReplyDelete
  45. hmm maybe there's hope, I just saw a blog post that claims we can hide the webalbums from google plus.

    ReplyDelete
  46. @Bombchell:

    I doubt that Google asked you to make all your albums public. That's absurd.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Here's another way to think about it:

    Since the people you tag automatically gain privileges associated with the image, this *discourages you from tagging people*. Rather than protecting *your* privacy, Google is erring on the side of protecting *their* right to control their exposure.

    I don't want you tagging images of me, then uploading them and (maybe) later making them public. I want to know about it the instant the image is uploaded so *your picture of me at a party doesn't damage me*.

    This is still trust, it just isn't trusting *you*, the photographer. Galling?

    I think there needs to be a "tag privately" option.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Is this legal? Can I be accused of distributing PEDOPHILE content? If I tag a friend in a photo of my "Backup 2008 album”, since I’m sharing the entire album, can I be accused of distributing illegal photos of my 2 years old daughter naked?

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  49. @Jose

    You should keep those pictures as far away from the internet as possible.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Well I was going to join google plus but with the info I just learned I will not be joining this unless they untie the requirement to add picassa to google plus. I'm sorry google but I will stay with Facebook for now. I tried to join google plus without having picassa linked. Nope this is just plain insane to force people to opt into picassa. If necessary I will remove picassa and go to another photo hosting site.

    ReplyDelete
  51. So, where is the DOJ when the monopoly is user information? We broke AT&T, we break Microsoft ... and mean while Google builds this unique tracking database that they are using to sell access to the "you" they know.

    Going with GGL is like heading into "that" area of Dagobah, and GGL is holding the light saber waiting to slice and dice us (the internet community) into numbers for ad revenue. They make "advancements" that some people like but not all people, and use the "likes" to force the feature on everyone (type ahead/predictive search in the bar, preview of page to the right, black bar at the top) things you don't get to chose anything different for. You can turn off GGL Instant, but it still does predictive search terms, and you can make the conscious decision *not* to click on one of those "preview" arrows, but just for the fact that your mouse may come to rest there while reading over the results, google assumes you meant to turn it on but just "didn't click" by accident.

    Google is evil by its very nature, by not giving users the choice, it has become THE most perversely passively aggressive company on the internet today.

    Vile Evil company.

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  52. I have decided to stay a facebook fan, google + is giving me big problems already, anybody else having signup problems also?

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  53. Removing the ability to easily share Picasa Web Albums by email rather than by sharing with Google+ Circles is a serious loss of functionality. Many folks that I share hiking photos with are not in my Circles and never will be. This apparently happened within the last week as it was possible last Sunday.

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  54. How do I get out of this hell hole??? What are they thinking. I, like several users, use google for storage. due to larhe file size the majority of my 300 + albums and 5000 plus photos are for work share or sharing only with close family and friends. Only a handful are used for public. I tried "sharing" with one of my vendors, and they did even even get the email.

    What is the fastest way to get my photos removed from google?? HELP!! It took me hours and hours to put them up. Google what are you thinking with this turd??

    ReplyDelete
  55. I am very unhappy w/what is happening to Picasa. It used to be a great way to back up pix online, organize them, and KEEP THEM PRIVATE! Now as it is getting assimilated into google+ it is losing most of the features I loved. I hate the organization google is forcing on me - if I share a pic on g+, it gets moved out of the album I had it in. Why? This is just stupid. For some reason a new "scrapbook photos" album was created, that contain copies of pictures that are elsewhere, that I can't get rid of or hide. What's the point of this? Now sharing is changing so I don't have control I used to. In short, picasa is quickly becoming an app I don't want to use.

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  56. Time to ditch Picasa. It's a shame, I have invested 100s of hours organising and tagging my pictures. However at the end of the day, I signed up to a photo sharing site, NOT a silly gimmicky social network of which I have absolutely no interest. I have no faith Google will retain stand alone functionality of Picasa. It's only a matter of time before signing up to Google+ will be mandatory. Further, Google have proven to be useless at fixing bugs in both Picasa web albums and Picasa desktop. RIP Picasa.

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  57. Picasa used to be such an innocent piece of software. Dare we ever trust the Big G again.

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  58. My reason for keeping Picasa is simple. It has allowed me to discover a really great free image editing software called Picnik. It can be used without Picasa of course, still, I am used to the look and feel of it.

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  59. I used to meticulously tag every person in every photo. These tags are for ME. Most of the photos are private. If they are shared, they are only shared with the folks who were present in the photos.

    I am aware of the big back and forth between folks who believe they are entitled to control MY tagging of THEMSELVES in MY pictures, and those (like myself) who disagree...

    Long story short... after seeing the new Google+ system in action, there is no way I can use tagging anymore, ever. I tag 100's of pics at a time, you're going to send a separate e-mail to the SAME person for EACH photo?! Jeez! Wait an hour and then send them one digest e-mail at least!

    This was such an important feature for me, I wish I could UNLINK just my Picasa account. I may have to ditch Picasa for Flickr now just for that reason.

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  60. Don't worry guys - at least so far you can continue using picasa and picasaweb as you previously have - you just have to either use picasaweb (picasaweb.google.com) or the desktop software for nametagging. This tagging is completely seperate (and not even transferable - unfortunately in my opinion) from google+ tagging.

    You can't even see picasa face tags in google+ - even those made since google+.

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  61. The changing of the way Picasa works after signing up for Google+ is a major issue especially in terms of sharing albums with others in several ways. In the past all those who the album was shared with would receive an invite with a link, which they could access with or without a Google account. Should they have Picasa installed on their computer there was also a simple download entire album button. Now it appears invites are not sent to those not in Google+ and for those that are in Google+ and thus do receive an invite there are still issues. Specifically a shared album now only shows in Google+ and not Picasa web albums for the recipient and as such photos can only be downloaded individually. Previously shared albums still show in Picasa, but not new ones. Only by sending a direct link to the album can a simple download we facilitated, though the album still does not show in Picasa Web shared albums

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  62. As in Google have broken Picasa Web with Google+, non members of Google+ not being able to view photos, unable to share photos via email if you haven't joined Google+.

    IMO Google have broken many parts of Picasa Web Albums with it's implementation of Google+.

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  63. I established Picasa Albums and have used them to both instruct others how to they can be made. All of my albums are now GONE. Pictures and all. Also the new Picasa 3.9 has removed many of the useful features that were found in the lower right tray. I have some rather large Picasa classes coming up and I am not quite sure how to handle the reduced functionally of the program. Google+ doesn't do much for those of us who use Picasa to manange Photo's and "selectively" share our photo's with family members. My vote is to go back to 3.8's functionality in 3.9. Please add features, don't remove existing ones.

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  64. Most of the information in this is out of date. The only people who can see an album are people you chose to share it with, and you chose in your settings if they have the ability to download the photo, or tag it, or not. Don't think anything you put on the web is actually 'secure' be this is better than everyone having access to everything.

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  65. in simple and easy words, which of these following statements is true...
    Face tags from Picasa web are not transferred to Google+
    Face tags from Picasa PC are not transferred to Google+
    Google+ face tags have to be done again from new.
    Google+ is a superb example on how not to implement a web interface and really upset your users.

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  66. I, like the majority of the posts I've read so far, am disappointed with this latest change to Picasa. I wish I knew prior to spending so much time uploading my albums that I would eventually loose this much control. I am removing my photos and albums from Picasa and will be closing my account in the near future. Google could have, at least, given current users an opportunity to "opt out" of the modification prior to the Google+ integration.

    I read about reported workarounds for some of the undesirable situations created as a result of the Google+/Picasa change; nevertheless, I prefer not needing to deal with them—it's simply something else added to my workload. Additionally—if I were to stay with Picasa—experiencing this latest unexpected change heightens my anxiety regarding possible future changes. I am done!

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  67. still I don't understand - how to share a link to picasaweb album, and how to manage for that album to be seen in picasa nad NOT in g+??

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  68. I am disappointed that Picasa webs is integrated with Google+. I need to find another place to store photos now. I'd love for people not on Google+ to be able to make comments on my photos, but that doesn't seem possible. What a shame.

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  69. I am disappointed that Picasa webs is integrated with Google+. I need to find another place to store photos now. I'd love for people not on Google+ to be able to make comments on my photos, but that doesn't seem possible. What a shame.

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  70. I am totally disappointed with Picasa integrated on Google+, I pay to store my Photos on Picasa, not Google+! One of the reasons is to make it simple to my friends and family (many not even Google users), to see my photos, comment them and also be able to save and download my photos. This is impossible now! :( I'll have to make all my albums private and think of another solution

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  71. Like Facebook, Google is becoming evil - deciding what will and won't be private. FAIL

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  72. Google = evil

    Google are desperately trying to push Google+ so hard to compete with Facebook that they are degrading their other service like Picasa.

    Web albums sharing is a good example. You can share with (you guessed it) Google + or by using a link. Where are the other sharing options like with Facebook, Windows Live etc? Oh yeah and sharing by a link means if that link were to be forwarded or posted elsewhere anyone can have a perve at that album to the only "semi secure" option is to use Google+. They might as well just remove the link option and leave the share with Google+ as the only option.

    Really stink Google. They just don't want to come to the party with their services on 'competitors' platforms. They haven't released any Google apps on the WP7 platform to the best of my knowledge ... but at MS are producing apps for Andriod!

    Time for the 'competitors' to send a bit of Google love back their way and lock services down.

    ReplyDelete
  73. I was testing Google+ last summer and unfortunately I shared my Picasa albums with Google+. I tested putting some of my albums public under my profile and then I realized I don't want to share all of those albums in Google+. Now, I can't share those albums from Picasa without sharing them under my Google+ profile too.

    All the links in the web to my Picasa albums are broken, because I just don't want to share them under Google+ profile, so I had to put them all private.

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  74. I can't believe Google is doing this! I just went to my Google+ profile page and couldn't believe that all of the pictures I am tagged in just appeared. I, too, am using PicasaWeb as my picture backup and I use tagging to organize them all. I have no intent of sharing many of my pictures, but this just gave me another reason to not share with anyone.

    Google, I know you want to take on Facebook, but you are going against everything you've said about giving people more control. Looks like I am going to have to go shut down my Google+ account.

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  75. Dear Google, I am afraid that unless you do something about this awful unsolicited situation where you force picasa users to utilise google+ then I will be boycoting all google products/applications.

    You simply must listen to the customer and give us back Picasa Web albums and break the unwelcome link to Google+ which has ruined Picasa Web Albums.

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  76. I am disappointed that Picasa webs is integrated with Google+. I need to find another place to store photos now.

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  77. After google had their recent consolidation of all services I decided that it was time to get off the Google bandwagon and deleted Google+. Didn't really change my life since I never used it. Oh, it did change my life in one way because I stopped having to worry about Picasa trying to share my photo albums every time I uploaded.

    But today my GF posted an album and sent me an invite. Turns out they are in Google+ and since I don't have an account, I'm not allowed to comment.

    I've been a big Google supporter from the very early days but over the past few years they've shown an appalling lack of concern for user privacy or the user experience. My goal is to start looking for replacement services for most of my Google products.

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  78. I will no longer use Picasa Web. I can't seem to run a slideshow in pubolic view any more. I used to love this programme. Now I'll find another place to store my albums. Anywhere bug Google.

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  79. Does anyone know why it's no longer possible to share individual photos from Picasaweb to Google+. I know I've done this before, but it appears to be officially impossible now (see answer here->http://support.google.com/picasa/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1295919)

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  80. for more information on How to use Picasa to Share photos you can go through here: http://forums.techarena.in/tips-tweaks/1461404.htm
    here you will get the all details to share and upload photos to Picasa...

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  81. Long time user of picasa... hate, hate hate this.

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    Replies
    1. i'm disgusted. just had half my friends emailed from google allowing them access to *my* photos. so long google+

      Delete
  82. I really dislike this limitation: "The new version of Picasa Web for Google+ has another drawback: you can't comment on a photo of a Google+ user if you don't have a Google+ account. Even if the photo is included in a public album, it's still not possible to write a comment without joining Google+"

    I think anyone given permission to view the album should also have permission to comment. The worst part is, it allows you to type the comment in the comment field, but when you try to submit it, you just get an "oops ... error" without any explanation.

    Honestly, allowing people to comment is more likely to get them interested in Google+. Getting locked out, esp with an oops after going ahead and typing the comment, is plain annoying and un-google like.

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  83. Well, to be honest, i really like using Web Picasa and sharing various types of images through Web Picasa Album(WPA). As seen from many above comments, it seems some people just don't like Web Picasa. The reason, i think, could be that they are not not signed into Google Plus. I use all the types of Google services, and together they all work fantastic. And you can control who can see your images( one of the commentators in this post was complaining about this, but this is not true, if you know all the feaures, certainly you will love Picasa Web Album (as i do :)

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  84. I've just posted an album to share with a relative. As they are not a Google+ member, they cannot see the face tags or add comments. I'm not going to force them to become a Google+ member just to help me fill in some gaps in the name, date location info of these photos. I am going to leave Google+, and find something else that's more open and has better privacy.

    To the Google marketing team: You're losing the plot and what made Google what it once was.

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  85. we had a nice club of hobby enthousiasts that were using PWA to show our projects and to put comments on eachothers pictures. We got messages when someone placed a new picture. After one of us moved into Google+ by accident, it all became a disaster. Today, we are still suffering from that move.

    If someone can explain me what the advantage is of the pop-up pictures, browsing through an chaotic google+ album instead of the clean and organised collection of albums in the 'old' Picasa Web Album.
    Or the previous comments that disappear if you add new comments, displayed in the strange window next to the picture in Google+ instead of the clear view underneith the picture in the 'old' PWA.

    Or why do some linked persons not getting email messenges anymore when somebody is adding a picture or comment.

    Picasa worked well in the early days, to me it got worse year after year, starting with the upload function a few years ago and now this Google+ socialising upgrade.

    Why doesn't stay companies to what they are good in.
    A bank should stay a bank (there wouldn't be a financial crise if they had done that).
    Picasa Web should stay Picasa Web.

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