There has been really increasing debates as to which is best amongst these two giants. Each one beats the other in their own segment making the choice difficult for the end-users. I am an avid photographer. I always have my 120GB hard disk asking for space to free up and I simply love to click the upload button in the Picasa software to share with all my friends and family. This software almost forms the brain and heart of the popularity of Picasa. It’s extremely easy to share all the photos just by clicking upload and instantly your photos are send to your online albums, ready to be shared or kept private. Till now, the Picasa album’s free limit had been enough for me. I already have about 14-15 albums and close to 120-130 snaps in each of my own Picasa album. I have completely explored Flickr and have found it’s social networking aspect extremely attractive and addicting. Also there are lot’s of API tools that make Flickr what it is today more than Yahoo itself! And so I am sticking to both Picasa and Flickr for the time being. Here are my Flickr photos if you want to add me and keep track of my photos.
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But the cost of the two services based on the features they provide provides a very tricky situation for the end-users to decide what they really need. You really need to have a very crystal clear idea of what you really want from your photo sharing service. Then only the choice would make you satisfied in the end. Here is a quick snapshot of what the two services provide. With a little research work and comparing them it is not a difficult choice.
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Category
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Picasa Web Albums
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Flickr
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Ease of use |
Very decent to use. The albums are arranged reverse chronological order. Uploading interface looks like this. |
Concept of set here. All photos belonging to a set are arranged together. Uploading interface looks like this. |
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Navigability and Uploading |
Very easy. The Kewll toolbar makes it even easier. Get it here. |
Uploading and navigating is very simple. The Kewll toolbar helps here too.
Get it here. |
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Number Limits |
A free user can create up to 250 albums, total 500 photos and videos per album, i.e. total 1,25,000 photos. |
No limit. Upload infinite photos and videos. But there is limit of total 100MB of photos and 2 videos every month. |
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Drawback |
Lacks the professional look and feel. |
200 photo limit for free users. When you upload the 201st photo, your 1st photo gets hidden, which you cannot view until you delete 1 of the 200 you can view. See this. |
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Size Limits |
Photo:20MB and <50Megapixel
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Photo : 10MB |
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Size Limits |
Photo: 20MB (&<50Megapixel)
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Photo : 20MB |
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Pricing |
20 GB ($5.00 USD per year)
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24.95$ per year
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Social Networking |
Not pronounced. The Explore tab provides some really decent photos by other users. You can comment on those photos and add the user to your favorites. |
Unmatched social networking till now. Very easy to comment on other's photos and add him as a contact. There are several groups and discussions going on. Lots of people comment and discuss each other's photos. This social networking aspect is one of the biggest and major attractions of Flickr which Picasa will find it very tough to beat. |
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Video formats |
3GP, AVI, ASF, MOV, WMV, MPG, MP4, M2T, MMV, M2TS |
AVI, WMV, MOV, MPEG (1, 2 and 4), 3GP |
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Video FAQ |
You really need to check these out before deciding on the video segment. |
Flickr seems beaten down with only a 90 second limit, but check out these if you want to know more. |
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Tagging while uploading |
Tags and captions can be added on a photo. |
Tags, description and title can be added on a photo. |
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Tagging existing photo |
‘Name tag’ can be added to persons in the photo. |
‘Notes’ can be added to objects or persons. |
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Privacy |
Options of making the albums: Public (will appear in search results and visible to everyone)
Unlisted (will not appear in search results but can be viewed with the exact album link, no need for viewers to sign in, making the process extremely simple, easy and fast, an advantage over Flickr)
Private (viewers need to be invited by the owner)
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Option of making the photos:
Public (visible to everyone)
Visible to family ( visible to people whom you add as family, viewers need to be signed in and added to your contacts as family before hand, a disadvantage )
Private ( only visible to you )
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Blogging |
Not available. Extremely convenient through Picasa software though. |
‘Blog this’ button available for every photo. |
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Upload by email |
Easy to use, specially for mobile cameras. Check out. |
Difficulty may arise when sending more than one photo. See what they say. |
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Downloading |
Extremely easy to download both photos and videos from personal albums and albums of other people (if they allow). Some steps to follow are here. |
Not so easy and simple as Picasa but yet works fine. Both photos and videos can be downloaded. |
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Slideshow |
Feature is available. |
Feature is available. |
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Geotagging |
Feature is available. |
Feature is available. |
| Supporting Desktop Software | Amazing cool software called Picasa. Can be launched from within
. Every photographer's delight. It automatically gathers all media files on the hard disk and provides easy navigation for the user. Just a click of the 'Upload' button will upload hundreds of photos to the Picasa Web Albums. Other options available are 'Blog This!', ‘Print’, ‘Email’, 'Movie' and 'Collage' maker. You may check out some features here and here. |
One third party software available that only helps in uploading the photos to Flickr and shows the size of uploading photos. A very big drawback and disadvantage in this segment compared to the Picasa software. |
| So expensive! | Picasa Web Albums is really expensive beyond the 80GB/20$ per year which asks for 50, 100, 256, 512, 1024, 2048 and 4096$, but with amazing storage limits ofcourse! | Flickr though asks for 24.95$ per year, but it gives unlimited space and count to the number of photos and videos. This is a major advantage of people who want to backup their photo collection or are an avid photographer. I have got my Pro account for storing my best collection. |
| Professional Photography |
Can be used for professional photography. But more useful for friends and family photo collections and gatherings. |
Very useful for professional photographers. Vast exposure to the photography world and like-minded people. |
| Third Party Applications | Does not support use of third party applications. | Third party applications provides several useful and entertaining tools. |
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Backed by |
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Yahoo |
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Conclusion |
If you are looking for a cool and casual platform just to share some special occasional photos with your family and friends, this is for you. In case you need some more storage you can also try out their 20GB (5$/year) plan, or if you require 40GB get another account and purchase 20 more again or go for their 80GB (20$/year) plan if you want to. |
If you are a professional photographer or even an enthusiast, you must get a Flickr Pro account. Initially though you might find the 24.95$/year a bit too much, but it will allow you to share unlimited photos (or if you want, you can backup all your photos there with permission set to “Private”). Besides, you get several communities to discuss and share your pics where you might find several useful information. |
Hey Rahul! Dude… Or shall I say a geek! Thanks for sharing the info pal… I love Picassa over Flickr Yo!
Yeah, Picasa's Unlisted privacy feature is way better than Flickr's friend/family 🙂
nice article!!! good work, dude! :-)seems like u have taken quite some effort to analyse the working of both.
I always wanted to know the real differences between these 2 photo sharing giants..This article helped a lot..Thanks 🙂
I'm late to the party, but thanks again for this comparison. I read it a couple of months ago and am considering Flickr again, so I came back out looking for this chart that I remembered from before.Awesome comparison. I think I'm going to stick with the “both” option. hehe.
@AnonymousThanks. I am also using both Picasa and Flickr because both offer really great features and quality services.
Thanks for this review – really helpful.µ
Flickr & Picasa are good and I use both, however, SimpleViewer allows you to post your Google ads without hassle or fear of having your account deleted (flickr):www.varsityphotos.net/ag/ag_main.htmwww.varsityphotos.net/michele/mchele_main.htm