Best Alternative to Flickr?
May 9, 2010 7:59 PM   Subscribe

What is the best website for photo sharing that isn't Flickr? Alternatively, convince me that Flickr is great.

I have been using facebook to share my photos with friends and family since 2005, but facebook's privacy issues are really starting to bother me and I'm looking for an alternative. I have a Flickr account and a Picasa Web Albums account, but I hate Flickr's interface (there is no "Next" button, and I always click that arrow and it just rotates the thumbnails, and the photostream view doesn't optimize the use of space) and I hate the uploader for Picasa.

Here is what I like about facebook's photos that I want in a photo sharing site:

- The thumbnail view of a large portion of the photo album (20 photos at a time), and the ability to click "Next" to quickly see the next 20.

- The ease of uploading, which includes the ability to see thumbnails of my photos to choose which to upload, the ability to upload many photos at once, and the ability to upload some photos in a folder while not uploading all of them.

- The ability to send a link to the album for people who aren't on facebook.

Additionally, what I'd most like in a photo sharing website, ranked in order of importance:

1. Free.
2. Unlimited or high limit on uploading (I dislike the per/month model, as I don't upload photos very often, but when I do, I often upload many [maybe 200 or so]).
3. Clean and easy-to-use interface.
4. Having large-sized photos.
5. Ability to share the photos with people who aren't users of the website.

All of the threads I've been able to find on the subject are either too specifically aimed, or likely out of date.

So what photo sharing websites would you recommend? If it's Flickr or Picasa Web Albums, can you tell me what you like about it and why I'm wrong? Thanks!
posted by joan cusack the second to Computers & Internet (26 answers total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: One of the reasons flickr is great is that you can grow with it. For example, you can use the flickr API on your own blog or website to pull photos from flickr and show them on your site. For example, all of the tiny thumbnails here are being pulled from flickr, and when you click a photo, the larger version is also pulled from flickr. These are also pulled from my flickr photostream automatically.

Personally, I love flickr's interface. There *IS* a next button at the bottom of each page on your photostream, and there are a Previous/Next image thumbnail buttons on the page of each individual photo.

Another great reason to use flickr is the huge community of groups with message boards. I've met some cool people on the PDX Portland group. I went on a few photo walks with people there and will definitely go on more.

I've never seen anything that compares to flickr.
posted by 2oh1 at 8:09 PM on May 9, 2010 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I pay twenty five dollars a year for flickr, despite the fact that I have my own webspace. I find it to be incredibly easy to use and I enjoy the utility of the tagging features, which aren't limited to people.

- The thumbnail view of a large portion of the photo album (20 photos at a time), and the ability to click "Next" to quickly see the next 20.

I'm very confused by what you mean by this. I went to look at my flickr albums both logged in and logged out. When logged out, my large albums (here, called sets) show up in pages of sixty thumbnails, with both a "next" button and a numbered list that you can click on to see the thumbnails of images further in the set. The same is true for the main photostream page (and you can customize how many photos you see on your own photostream page when you make your own account).

- The ease of uploading, which includes the ability to see thumbnails of my photos to choose which to upload, the ability to upload many photos at once, and the ability to upload some photos in a folder while not uploading all of them.

There are a ton of different ways to upload to flickr. At least some of these interact with your file browser, so, depending on your OS, this could be as simple as changing the way you're viewing your files when the dialog box comes up. I don't know what OS you have, but I use Linux and there are (free) third-party tools I've been able to download that do just what you're proposing available to me; they're bound to be available for you.

- The ability to send a link to the album for people who aren't on facebook.

Yup, flickr does that. Here's some pictures of a globe full of shrimp! In fact, flickr's tags increases the ease of sharing. Here's every picture I've tagged of my cat!

Flickr's not free if you have a large number of photos (more than 200). But it's very, very cheap considering the utility, customizability, number of uploading means and tools, the large file sizes allowed (as big as you want), and the larger number of files allowed (as many as you want).
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 8:24 PM on May 9, 2010 [1 favorite]


It seems to me like most of this can be done on Flickr, although I guess the "clean and easy to use interface" is subjective. I happen to think that Flickr fits that description very well. Yes, the free version of Flickr is very limited but like anything in life, you get what you pay for. $25 per year for their "Pro" upgrade is an absolute bargain. The only other service on the internet that comes close to that kind of deal is Slacker radio.

As far as uploading, I'm pretty sure Flickr can do everything that you want. When I go to upload photos using their web browser interface, I can see my photos' thumbnails and I can also pick only certain photos to upload. If you're using a Mac, make sure that when you get the file upload dialog box (this is the window that appears after you click "Choose photos and videos" on the Flickr upload page) that you click the Icon view in the top left corner (or hit CMD-1 key combo). Then you can see the thumbnails. After that, when you want to select only certain photos, hold down the Command key (CMD or if you're old-school, the "Apple" key) while clicking on the photo(s) you want to upload. It's that easy. If you're using Windows, someone else will have to chime in to tell you how to accomplish the same thing.

There are also LOTS of other ways to upload photos to Flickr. I personally upload mine directly from Adobe Lightroom. There are also some other apps that are solely dedicated to uploading photos to Flickr. Take your pick.
posted by buckaroo_benzai at 8:28 PM on May 9, 2010


Response by poster: buckaroo_benzai, I'm running Windows 7, sorry I forgot to mention that.

PhoBWanKenobi, the "Next" that I really want to be there in Flickr is when you're looking at a particular photo in a set and you want to see the next one. Facebook lets you just click the photo to move on, which I like, and it also lets you just hit the right and left arrows to do so. Flickr wants me to hit the next thumbnail (I think), but doesn't have that thumbnail labeled as being the next one in the set (again, when I'm looking at a single photo in a set, not the overall view of all the photos in a set).

That said, the adorable photos of your cat that you linked may be enough of a push to get me to give Flickr another chance. I wasn't really aware of how functional the tagging system was. And your cat is awesome.
posted by joan cusack the second at 8:59 PM on May 9, 2010


PhoBWanKenobi, the "Next" that I really want to be there in Flickr is when you're looking at a particular photo in a set and you want to see the next one. Facebook lets you just click the photo to move on, which I like, and it also lets you just hit the right and left arrows to do so. Flickr wants me to hit the next thumbnail (I think), but doesn't have that thumbnail labeled as being the next one in the set (again, when I'm looking at a single photo in a set, not the overall view of all the photos in a set).

Ah! I see what you mean. The side photos point to the next/previous photos in the overall photostream, so if you want to view the next photo (unless all photos in a set are next to one another), you have to click back.

Yeah, that's annoying. You can have a little bit of wiggle room with this if you just upload your photos by set, so that your sets agree with the order of your photostream (though of course, eventually by clicking "next" you click right out of the set itself, but that's kind of a minor quirk). But really, that's a small price to pay for the overall utility. Because really, flickr is awesome.

And, thanks! I'll let Sammy Katz know that he might have helped sway you.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:09 PM on May 9, 2010


(Though I should say: photos that are part of a set also get their own previous/next thumbnail. This photo of Mr. Katz is part of a set called "Kitty Porn," so the navigation thumbnails are posted below the overall photostream thumbnails.)
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:12 PM on May 9, 2010


I use flickr, but I would not recommend using it to share photos with friends or family. I love it because I can get feedback on my photography with a bunch of other people passionate about photography, but its interface is not good for sharing a large number of photos with friends.

For sharing photos with friends and family, I do use Picasa Web Albums and I use the upload tool through the desktop application, which I've always found to be painless. Not sure if that's what you're talking about, but if you've been using the web upload tool you might want to try the desktop application for photo organization as well as uploading.
posted by kylej at 9:19 PM on May 9, 2010 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Flickr wants me to hit the next thumbnail (I think), but doesn't have that thumbnail labeled as being the next one in the set (again, when I'm looking at a single photo in a set, not the overall view of all the photos in a set).

It's true you can hit the thumbnail but there are arrows right below them showing you which way to go. The arrows are clickable too, so you can use those instead of the thumbnails. I do agree that having the navigation up on the right and away from the actual photo is counterintuitive and it bugs me too, but you get used to it pretty fast. Having both the overall photostream and any applicable sets shown in the same place can be useful too, allows you to navigate in different ways from the same place.

I think everything else you've listed flickr does just fine. The uploaders come in every flavour and I just grabbed one fro flickr itself which works the way you're describing. The limits to the free account aren't deal breakers for a lot of people and it is cheap if you want to pay for the extra stuff. I also pay for flickr despite havinge my own webspace, with gallery software even, flickr is just so much easier and the sharing aspect was the decider for me. My sister can post photos of my nephew so that only family can see them and photos of her garden for all her friends and photos of her hamster for everyone, and I wouldn't be able to interact with any of them nearly as easily if I was stuck over on my own website.

And I have kitten photos too. Alternatively I've lumped all the cat photos, regardless of age or cuteness, into a set (for when the tags are too specific).
posted by shelleycat at 9:26 PM on May 9, 2010


Best answer: I'm also a huge fan of Flickr. I pay for it (in fact, it's my xmas present to myself every year), and it's worth every penny. I am on Window 7, too, and they have an uploader (or Uploadr) that works well. It does pretty much everything you are looking for. It's just not free. I think you just have to man/woman up and lay down the $25 and enjoy it.

You can organize your photos TO THE MAX:

Here are all my collections. My bicycle collection has 8 different "sets" (albums, if you want to think of it that way). My vacation collection has 7 different albums.

You can even tag people the way you tag them on Facebook. It is totally superior to Facebook! JOIN UUUUUUSSSSSS!
posted by Lizsterr at 9:27 PM on May 9, 2010 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Sounds like SmugMug might fit the bill for you. It's not free, but the yearly prices are reasonable, imho, and the interface is light years ahead of flickr's.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 9:42 PM on May 9, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'm having a hard time seeing any feature you want that's not on Flickr, with one exception: it's not free and unlimited. It's either free and tightly limited, or $26 a year with limitations so high you'd never run into them.

I've read your question and follow-up comment, and I still don't know what you mean about not having a next button within a set. The next button is the thumbnail on the right. Do you just mean it doesn't have the actual word "next" written on it? Is that really a big deal once you know where to click?

There are different ways to upload to Flickr. I use Flickr Uploadr, and it seems to do what you want.

I've been using a paid Flickr account for 5 years now. It's the best photo site, period. It does whatever I want it to. Even if there's some other site I haven't seen that all the same functionality, it still wouldn't be as good as Flickr since Flickr has more users. It's similar to why I don't switch from Facebook to Friendster. I'm sure Friendster has many features that are at least as good as Facebook's -- but no one I know uses Friendster.

Again, I'm interested to know which features you've listed are not available on Flickr, aside from being free-and-unlimited. Unless I'm missing something, everything you want that has to do with sets and navigation and links exists on Flickr. It's the most powerful photo site for laypeople, it's been developed for years, and they've done an amazing job at figuring out what people want out of a photo website.
posted by Jaltcoh at 10:18 PM on May 9, 2010


I happily pay SmugMug's fee because I like their interface so much. Easy on my end, easy for my 75-year-old-mom to browse, looks pretty, I can organize photos in galleries and also list tags across galleries -- there's a lot of ways to use various elements depending on your needs, they're receptive to their users, etc.
posted by desuetude at 11:07 PM on May 9, 2010


I'd be interested in hearing what people who are more experienced than I am think of Panoramio. I too joined Fbook just to share photos with my family/friends at long distances, and am totally turned off by all the other crap there is on that platform. And now with the new security issues I'm considering closing my account down. I found Panoramio and am enjoying that a lot, especially the geo-tagging. But comments on this thread are so enthusiastic about Flickr that I'm wondering whether I made the wrong choice. (Although I dread the thought of moving all my pictures all over again to a new platform.)

Does anyone have experience of both Flickr and Panoramio and can offer some helpful insight?
posted by aqsakal at 12:11 AM on May 10, 2010


Seconding SmugMug: free alternatives are downright hideous in comparison, not to mention ads and spam, and the terrible UI (I'm looking at you, Flickr). There are plugins to upload directly from Picasa/Aperture/iPhoto etc.
posted by halogen at 12:22 AM on May 10, 2010


The next button is the thumbnail on the right. Do you just mean it doesn't have the actual word "next" written on it? Is that really a big deal once you know where to click?

Well, most next buttons aren't that big a deal once someone has told you where the next button is.

However IMHO a user interface is kind of weak if users have to be told where to find the single most important button.

Also the next button is missing entirely from the 'all sizes' page.
posted by Mike1024 at 1:36 AM on May 10, 2010 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Everything I dislike about Flickr is solved either with a userscript (I have about 5 to 10 Flickr-specific scripts running per page) or with a Firefox Add-on or with an AutoHotkey script.

More: http://www.flickr.com/groups/flickrhacks/

I keep paying for a Pro Flickr account year after year mainly for the detailed stats.
 
posted by querty at 2:18 AM on May 10, 2010


Well, most next buttons aren't that big a deal once someone has told you where the next button is.

Exactly. So we agree: there's a next button, and it's not a big deal.
posted by Jaltcoh at 3:08 AM on May 10, 2010


I have been hearing very good things about drop box's photo hosting option, definitly gives you one of the largest storage spaces of the free option.
posted by afu at 3:11 AM on May 10, 2010


So we agree: there's a next button, and it's not a big deal.

It would be more accurate to say that we agree there's a next button, and we agree it's not a big deal if you already know where that next button is.
posted by Mike1024 at 3:53 AM on May 10, 2010


Best answer: Flickriver provides a rather nice alternative interface to Flickr, and would seem to solve the "Next Button" issue that you're having.

$20/year is an absolute bargain when you think about it. Almost nothing is truly "unlimited."
posted by schmod at 5:23 AM on May 10, 2010


Google's Picasa Web gives you a gig of space for free, and it integrates very nicely with the desktop Picasa. I have 30 or 40 albums on PicasaWeb and I'm still not at 50% of my free storage space. You can buy extra storage space for $20 a year, but if you are just sharing with friends and family I can't see you getting to that point anytime soon.

Flickr is better, but if you are just sharing with people you know and aren't interested in feedback from others and getting involved in all the community aspects of flickr then the $25 a year is sort of wasted there.
posted by COD at 5:32 AM on May 10, 2010


It would be more accurate to say that we agree there's a next button, and we agree it's not a big deal if you already know where that next button is.

Well, the OP knows.
posted by Jaltcoh at 6:20 AM on May 10, 2010


Facebook actually shows bigger photos than Flickr too. 720 pixels vs. 500. You can click through for bigger ones on Flickr but on a modern monitor it seems a bit silly to be so limited.

And in general, Flickr is starting to feel very dated. One of these days someone will come along and blow them away with something fresh.

I am a Flickr user, for many years, but I am thinking of leaving to something else.
posted by smackfu at 6:21 AM on May 10, 2010


Re the 'next' button: I have been using Flickr since 2004 or so, and happily pay for it, but I also hate the way navigation works on the individual photo pages. Especially how the thumbnails which are 'active' change depending on whether you've arrived at that photo from a set, from a pool, or from a photostream.

And I dislike how sets and pools show up very similarly on a photo page. If someone not familiar with Flickr is browsing my photos, I don't want them to accidentally navigate away because they happened to activate the pool navigation thumbnails. I'd really love some kind of major refresh of the Flickr layout, or at least more control over it.
posted by statolith at 7:16 AM on May 10, 2010


I'm not sure if you are using the Picasa web based uploader. But if you are then give the Picasa desktop application a try. It's really easy to use.
posted by WizKid at 1:54 PM on May 10, 2010


Well, the OP knows.

But the OP wants to use Flickr to share photos with friends and family, each of whom will have to go through the same process of discovery about the next button. I agree with the OP, I find Flickr slow and needlessly confusing.
posted by peacheater at 5:45 PM on May 10, 2010


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