This is a follow-up/continuation for the posting I wrote yesterday comparing Apple’s MobileMe service to Google’s typically “free” alternative.
Today let’s look at the MobileMe Gallery -vs- Picasa
MobileMe Gallery
Pros: Integrates nicely with iPhoto and fairly well with the iPhone. Storage is fairly abundant.
Cons: iPhone compatibility could still use some work.
The gallery pages on MobileMe are simple, with clean design and excellent functionality. You can upload to them from iPhoto, web browser or email. Their is as much storage as you have on your iDisk. They are easily accessible from the web and you can even share them with friends or family. From the iPhone you can upload from your Photos, but one picture at a time, which is good but not great. You can also email photos to the gallery from any phone.
Picasa
Pros: Free. Larger community of Gmail users to share photos with. Picasa desktop software available for free works with Picasa Web Gallery. Integrates with iPhoto.
Cons: Only about 1GB of space available for photos. If you have a BIG collection, that will simply not be enough.
Picasa is great, though I would argue not as aesthetically pleasing or functional as the MobileMe Gallery. You can also add storage to compensate for the small amount of free storage.
10 GB ($20.00 USD per year)
40 GB ($75.00 USD per year)
150 GB ($250.00 USD per year)
400 GB ($500.00 USD per year)
So storage is definitely upgradable and for most people 10GB should be enough and at $20 for the year it is definitely a much better deal than MobileMe. Then again you can get unlimited storage on Flickr for $24.95/year.
When it comes to Photo storage and Publishing I think it’s difficult to declare any one service the winner. All 3 integrate with the iPhone, all 3 integrate with iPhoto and all 3 offer significant storage if you pony up some cash. This one is a 3-way draw based on preference.