I’m slowly trying to get away from Google services. It’s a long process that started a long time ago by deleting all my Gmail accounts and more recently a phased migration from Picasa Web Albums.
For most Google products there are valid alternatives on the market. Most of them are actually of higher quality and I don’t mind paying for services that I know will be further developed because funded by paying users.
The only service that it seems I will not be able to replace is Google Reader. It’s not that I use its web interface (I haven’t done it in months) but I heavily rely on its engine to sync my feeds between Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Austin White at some time ago on the opportunity that a good programmer could have by building an alternative to Google Reader.
Like Austin, I’d be willing to pay a subscription for such a service. Anyone out there?
I am also slowly departing from all google products … although Picasa is the one that scares me the most — definitely holding on to that at the moment!
I totally understand that. Have you found any good alternative?
I’ve tried Flickr, Zenfolio,… All the usual suspects but they all lack the ease of use of Picasa Web. They’re mostly overhead for what I am looking for: Just a safe place to store pics in case my house burns down or the laptop gets stolen.
At the moment I am moving the single pics files to Dropbox. Not ideal but at least the files are replicated somewhere.
Any suggestions?
Pietro
No ideas! My first task in the leaving Google empire is to switch from blogger to wordpress (yikes!) … Picasa and photos will be later this year, I think
WordPress is very flexible although sometimes I got the feeling that I spend more time tweaking it than writing.
What Picasa alternative do you use? I want something to show my photos to family and friends and won’t rely on it for backup. No free options are available.
I like the look of Apple’s photo journals but management of them is a nightmare.
Hi Darby,
I’m using a mix of Dropbox (not really a backup) and at the moment I’m testing Crashplan for proper off-site backup.
If I need to share something, I’ve started using iCloud Journals. I actually find them quite nice.
During my recent trip to California I managed to create daily pages to show my trip. I understand that it’s not ideal as long term solution to share your pictures but in my experience people look at posted pics only once
I’d expect that the new version of iPhoto will allow us to creat Journals from the Mac too.
Pietro
If Apple unties each ‘Journal’ from the specific device that created it and unifies them with iPhoto or preferable Aperture then I’d definitely consider it as my main photo sharing solution.
With the DropBox promotion of its ‘Photo Upload’ from iOS devices, I’ve started experimenting with its very simple galleries.
I agree with you in that people look at shared photos only once, but I like quick access for myself since I do look at them more than once!
I can totally see your point.
Dropbox photo upload is quite interesting. Haven’t spent much time on it but I might take a closer look at it.
Regarding Journals, yes the day Apple decides to unlink them to the device and integrate them in iPhoto and Aperture it’s going to be a good service.
Thanks for your contribution to the discussion Darby, much appreciated.
Best,
Pietro
Hi Darby and Pietro –
I moved from WordPress to squarespace as well. It was very easy and once it is setup I dont have to worry about things breaking or fiddling. It just works. Check out the free two week trial before you commit to it – it will tell you a lot. You can import both your Blogger and wordpress accounts very easily.
Now if we could find a google reader replacement !
Austin
Thanks for jumping in Austin. I didn’t know you were on Squarespace too. I might ask you a few questions. I’ll ping you via email.
Darby, check Austin’s blog for the look you can get with Squarespace. The URL is