Flickr vs. Picasa

For the last couple of months I decided to try out Google’s solution to online photo albums, Picasa. I had originally been using Flickr. I found that with Picasa, strangely enough, I didn’t have as much freedom as I did with Flickr and when it came down to it, Flickr was a much better web app.

The transfer (from Flickr->Picasa and vise versa) was easy enough using iPhoto and RSS feeds. But once I got into Picasa, the interface wasn’t as good, nor was the organization of photos. With Flickr, you have a little more freedom with how you organize your photos because they aren’t automatically associated with an album like they are in Picasa. You tag them and can add the to ‘Sets’ or ‘Collections’ if you choose. Because of this, you have a little more wiggle room with what you do with the photos.

When it came time for me to import the photos from Picasa onto my blog, I realized that I could only do it by album, which I wasn’t a huge fan of because adding my newest photos wasn’t automated. With Flickr, I used their RSS feeds to bring in the 10 most recently upload photos and then 10 Random photos.

Flickr also does social networking better. On the homepage, you view pics from your photo stream, as well as your friends’ and then random people. You can also more readily find friends, and create groups for pictures that anyone can add to.

Those who know me know I’m a huge fan (re: whore) of Google, but when it comes to a great photos web app, I doubt anything can top Flickr.