Picasa Web reviewed as a serious Flickr contender

Robert Nyman has reviewed Picasa Web Albums, and considers it to be a serious Flickr contender.

He gives a reasoned runthrough of what's good about the service, and in particular, for him, one of the best bits is the ability to view albums in thumbnail view at one of three sizes - small to get a good overview, medium for more detail, or large which for him means he sees all he wants without having to view the detailed views of individual pictures.

Perhaps what's more interesting is what he considers bad points of the service.  These are:

• No way to have (totally) private photos.
• No way to share specific albums/photos with certain other users.
• No groups.
• A fixed 6 GB storage; it’s actually not that much. For the Flickr Pro account, one has a 2 GB monthly upload limit, but no storage limit whatsoever.

Furthermore, he's worried about what happens when he stops paying for additional space - contrasting statements from Picasa Web which says that when you stop paying, your additional photos beyond the free limit may (my emphasis) be deleted, with the statement from Flickr that says that if your paid subscription expires, you simply drop back to a free account, but that your photos are safe, and can be accessed again by restarting your paid subscription.

In all, he considers that there is room for improvement in both services.