Leaving Picasa's Photo Sharing Website

"Leaving Las Vegas"  was the name of a famous book.  Well, I am now thinking of leaving my long-time friend, "Picasa Web Photos". It was a great website, until Google decided, apparently, it wasn't social-media enough.  They renamed and reordered it as Google + and it leaves me cold.  Doesn't work for me, nearly as well as the old site, and they took away the option to send an album to one of several on-line printing companies such as Shutterfly and Walgreens.  I belong to Walgreens Photo and liked that feature.  In seconds I could send a nice album I had created to my Walgreens site, and there edit out the ones I didn't want to print, and change print sizes and so forth.  Then, a few clicks later, and a few hours later, I could pick up the results at my nearby Walgreens (pay at the store, only if I liked the photos).

Now the Google + wants you to share your personal photos with the world.  Not my style. You can still email them as albums, but your friends can no longer use the print option either.

So, I am back shopping around for an alternative.  Flikr is one, but I think I will choose Phanfare.  I like the idea of paying, that keeps all advertising out, and keeps it professional quality.  Also it assures there is a reason for the vendor to keep all your photos safely in their cloud. They get paid to do so.  I know friends who have been on Phanfare for years, and love it.  I would send 100% of my photos, no mater where located, to Phanfare so that, no matter the status of my computer (s) I can be sure that next generations could find their childhood photos no matter where they live. Or when they want to see them.

Phanfare has this over Picasa

1. professional, allows RAW photos, and high MP size photos , high MB size photos
2. will take up all my videos too (many of which I lost in a computer crash a year or two ago)
3. it backs up my backup -- just an external hard drive is not foolproof , they fail, perhaps more often than we realize (and time takes a toll ?)
4. the persons you send a Phanfare album to don't need to register to see it (I think you email the password, but it is straight forward, not complex as the "free" sites are).
5. you can easily send the photos on to many commercial printing companies to make books, or just prints
6. as long as you (or someone pays) the content is protected
7. unlike Google, they are not trying to be a social media site with advertising dollars that might flow from such a situation

If you are using a site like Phanfare, please leave your comments on good, bad, or indifferent.  Thanks.

PS -- I think I will stick with the more stable photo organizing/editing Picasa 3 that is loaded onto my computer.. My beef is just with the website which is where most photos flow once I edit them.