Re: Google closing Picasa

I found that images stored with Google and embedded in forum posts could disappear after a while. Displaying photos uses the bandwidth of where the photo is hosted. I thought at the time that Google may not have allowed direct-linking (or hot-linking) because of that. Whatever the reason, maybe they do allow direct linking now. It will be interesting to see if Nom's second image stays there for a week or two.

The length of a link to an image stored on Google Photos is quite impressive.

About ISPs possibly offering free webspace. I have since discovered that Virgin Media no longer provide this to new customers. They don't plan to remove the service for existing customers who have content already stored there though.

Re: Google closing Picasa

Interesting Mart, i have wondered about how much content such as images and videos can continue to be stored on the net, originally most sites i used limited the amount you could store and the size of the files. Some of the sites im on have vast memberships these days, one i joined had only 2000 when i first joined now has 500,000.

One photography based site recently had a clear out of threads, but did try and warn members so if needed they could save anything they desired.

Re: Google closing Picasa

Some places offer a good bit of space for storage purposes but I'm not sure how many officially or permanently allow linking to images for forum display. I think what happens is that they change the URL once in a while.

There always seems to be a way to link but for reliability, it might be necessary to find a hosting site that is designed for the job. This forum and others allow photo uploads. That would be an option too.

It might be bandwidth that is an issue when linking to images held on various sites. Not everyone optimises images before uploading them and therefore some can be very large in file size. Downloading them into forums, blogs or other could use quite a bit of bandwidth. I believe that bandwidth, at some point, has to be paid for and this is why some sites may try to prevent linking to their images.

For instance, if you find an image on a site on the Internet, the site owner may object if that image is directly linked to and displayed as an image here. This action uses their bandwidth and they might be having to pay for this. A reference here:

http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive...dththeft.shtml (see the first paragraph)

Re: Google closing Picasa

Personally I am not so worried about Picasa Web as losing the desktop photo management and editing program Picasa 3. Google ceases up dating it in the middle of March.

If you do use it then it might be worth making sure you have it up to date.