Difference Between Flickr and Picasa

Flickr vs Picasa

Flickr and Picasa are two of the most well-known names when it comes to sharing photos online. Despite being similar in many aspects, there are differences between these two that may affect the choice of users. One major difference is the company that is behind either site. While Flickr is backed by Yahoo, the software giant Google is behind Picasa. It might be trivial to those who are just new to the internet but those who have been around for quite some time may already have accounts with either major internet player. You can use your Yahoo or Google account for their respective sites.

One major consideration with these services is the amount of storage that you get. Picasa has a 1GB limit to the files that you can store while Flickr provides you with unlimited storage. The caveat to Flickr’s unlimited storage is that you cannot access files that are beyond the 200 most recent. They are not deleted though and you can access them again if you subscribe to their pro plan.

Picasa is more convenient to use when you are uploading your files. This is because Picasa only has one limitation; 20MB or less for each photo. Videos do not have any sort of restriction. With Flickr, each photos and videos cannot be more than 10MB and 150MB respectively. Videos should also not exceed 90 seconds. There is also a 100 photo and 2 video transfer cap every month. Opting for a pro plan should remove the cap and increase the limits to 20MB and 500MB respectively.

One thing to consider when posting your photos online is security. Both Flickr and Picasa provide means to distinguish between public and private photos. And, you get the same level of security with either if you know what you are doing. If not, like with most internet users, Picasa gains points for simplicity as it has two photostreams (one for public and one for private) and you can just choose where you want your photos to go.

Although Google is much bigger compared to Yahoo, this is not the case with their photo sharing sites. Flickr has roughly 50 times the number of Picasa users, which is estimated to be at half a million users.

Summary:

1. Flickr is associated with Yahoo while Picasa is associated with Google
2. Flickr has unlimited storage while Picasa has a 1GB limit
3. Picasa is less restrictive with uploads than Flickr
4. Picasa is easier to secure than Flickr
5. Flickr has a lot more users than Picasa

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