Google has announced that it will be shutting down its Picasa Web Albums service on 1st May, 2016 and no longer supporting the Picasa desktop application as of 15th May, 2016.
Picasa Web Albums
It’s been almost 12 months since Google launched its new “Google Photos” service and the decision to drop Picasa online in favor of Google Photos really comes as no great surprise. According to Google; those currently using the Picasa Web Albums service can easily transition to Google Photos:
If you have photos or videos in a Picasa Web Album today, the easiest way to still access, modify and share most of that content is to log in to Google Photos, and all your photos and videos will already be there.
However, Picasa Web Albums users who’d prefer not to use Google Photos will have to wait for a bit:
For those of you who don’t want to use Google Photos or who still want to be able to view specific content, such as tags, captions or comments, we will be creating a new place for you to access your Picasa Web Albums data. That way, you will still be able to view, download, or delete your Picasa Web Albums, you just won’t be able to create, organize or edit albums.
Picasa Desktop Application
Even though Google will no longer be supporting Picasa desktop after 15th May, it will still work perfectly for existing users. It just means that there will be no new versions or new features available.
As of March 15, 2016, we will no longer be supporting the Picasa desktop application. For those who have already downloaded this—or choose to do so before this date—it will continue to work as it does today, but we will not be developing it further, and there will be no future updates.
- You can read Google’s announcement in full here: Moving on from Picasa.
Oh NOoooo horror of horrors!
Does that mean my blogs will also die?
If my photos & videos will be available in this other place will the links in my blogs also get automatically changed?
Or will I have to re-edit every post to put in the new link?
Do I really have all the time needed to do many 100’s of links?
I decided I didn’t want to go to Google photos because in the fine print they get possession of my photos to use as they like without my permission for individual photos.
That’s not fair in anyone’s language.
It is quite unfair that GOOGLE would do this to a very popular program. I see their desire to push people to Google Photo where they make more revenue, but to do it so brutally is unbelievable. I use both PICASA and Google Photo for different purposes as Google Photo lacks most of the best features of PICASA.
To stop updating PICASA is their prerogative. To break the link with Google Photo make no sense.
Hopefully, another company will realize the need and produce a software package with many of the PICASA features, including uploading images to the web.