vs.
People often compare Flickr to Picasaweb. While both allow people to upload photos to share with other people, it's really an apple and orange comparison.
Flickr:
A company that Yahoo acquired. Flickr is a very popular social platform for amateur photographers to upload their art work. The free account has a 100MB/month limit and they downsize your original pictures. Photography enthusiasts critique each other's photo styles and techniques, and can favorite, add to groups, etc. Flickr retains almost all of the original EXIF information so that amateur photographers can look at a picture's f-stop, shutter speed, ISO, and other settings and critique and learn from each other. Not surprisingly, many uploads are of high quality art work. Many people decide to buy the PRO version of Flickr because it's that good.
On Flickr, I expect to get comments from random photographers like "Why are you using 640 ISO during broad day light, and why is the depth of field so shallow that you're missing critical backdrop details? Oh I love the 24-70mm f/2.8, that is such a sweet lens, sharp in all aperture."
Picasaweb:
A Google built property. This is a popular dumping ground for people who want to share tons of family photos. It's very easy to use: 1) download a Picasa PC/Mac client 2) drag/drop photos into Picasa 3) then photos get uploaded to Picasaweb. Not surprisingly, many uploads are of boring and mundane looking family photos. This is a wonderful site for people to dump private stuff too. There is a 1GB/account limit, and you can buy more storage. It lacks some of the EXIF information and lacks that social feel, but then again, the target audience of Picasaweb is really your grandpa and grandma who don't give a damn what Facebook and Twitter are about anyways.
On Picasaweb, I expect to get comments like:
"LOL!"
"This sucks"
"WTF?"
"Which one is better, Canon or Nikon?"
So as you can see, apple and orange. When I need feedback from my fellow photographer enthusiasts, I upload to Flickr. I expect to get very useful and very technical advice on Flickr. On Picasaweb, I upload private family pictures, usually in the 1600 width resolution since that is the resolution that looks pretty good on 90% of the monitors today. Anything bigger is useless, and a waste of space. What I don't do these days is emailing or uploading the original pictures-- the funny thing is I still get people mailing me megabytes of original pictures. That is soooo very 1990s.
10 comments:
Flickr groups are lots of fun. You can share pics with other folks who are interested, and many of the groups are not even for serious photographers.
Flickr Groups are lots of fun, and many of them aren't even for serious photographers. Most of my Flickr photos are cellphone pics.
In the viewer role, Picasaweb provides a much better (read: faster) browsing/viewing experience. I can select the largest thumbnail size and browse through reams of photos, without having to click on any but the most interesting. Individual photos load more quickly (through AJAX, whereas Flickr seems to load entire new URLs frequently). When a friend sends me a "check out my photos!" email, I cross my fingers and hope the album is posted in Picasaweb -- the Flickr UI is just sluggish for casually browsing through a large set of photos.
Faster yes. On Picasa, people keep uploading 1000 family pictures (and I dread it every time that happens). On Flickr, people usually only upload 1 to 3 quality photos.
Many photographers and graphic artists go to flickr for stock photos. Flickr still remains the #1 place for amateur photographers. Picasa is more popular amongst family members.
So, no doubt Picasaweb is faster, WAAAAY faster. I'm not sure if faster junk is equivalent to "better" though. There are many Google properties that are superior in terms of user experience and content. Picasaweb gets a A- for experience, and C- for content IMHO.
By the way do a search on correctly spelled "Eiffel Tower". Picasaweb turns out over 700K again, but Flickr returns about 300K.
Now look at the quality differences. Because Flickr is waaaay more engaging and social, they use that data as a signal for picture quality, and rank good pictures higher (GEE doesn't that sound familiar with a famous search company?). Now look at Picasaweb results. I see so many Picasa results with some random bozo guy in front of the Eiffel Tower... not exactly what I need as an amateur graphics artist. But the results from Flickr looks... very pretty.
Now do a search on incorrectly spelled "Eiffle Tower." Picasaweb inundates the results with over 700K entries. Flickr comes out only 5000 entries. My take on this: Picasaweb is full of people who are... you know, stick in whatever generalization you want.
I know my article will piss off a bunch of hard core Google loyalists. Whatever. Most Google products are awesome. Picasaweb is one that is convenient to use and has everything right in terms of speed, etc. But content-wise, it totally blows.
Take a look at this: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/04/flickr-turns-up-the-awesome-on-image-search/
Different intent, of course. I used to participate at a site called PhotoSig. I'd just upload my best photos, which were commented on and discussed based on quality and content, as opposed to any sort of sentimental value.
Picasa photos have that sentimental value, but as you mention far inferior photographic quality. Thats okay; we're not all pro-level photographers. I view them because they're of/by my friends+family, not for the composition/lighting/color balance. I also like the huge choice (similar "shotgunned" shots, for example) people post, because I can browse through and grab photos I like (e.g., where I'm actually not closing my eyes), do my own editing, and re-share on Facebook or something.
Example: Which site would I rather see a random stranger's photos on? Flickr wins that hands down.
Which site would I rather browse friends' photos on? Picasaweb wins that hands down.
Point well taken. Apple and Orange.
Hey Michael, check out this link:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/readwritestart/2009/11/nincha-lets-you-share-what-oth.php
"While we all know that YouTube is for video, Flickr is for photography and..."
Maybe you want to correct the author and say Picasaweb.
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