Google Photos

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Google Photos

Post by Cortopassi » Wed Nov 11, 2020 9:52 pm

Finally, what we've all wondered about is happening. Free can't be free forever, dammit.

https://www.wired.com/story/google-phot ... rage-ends/
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Re: Google Photos

Post by Kriegsspiel » Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:08 am

Like the man says, when you rely on cloud storage for all your files, it's tough to give it up. I think I'm more luddite than a lot of people, the only files I have on cloud storage are whatever's on my Google Drive. I back up the important ones onto non-cloud storage memory card periodically.
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Re: Google Photos

Post by GT » Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:40 am

Cortopassi wrote:
Wed Nov 11, 2020 9:52 pm
Finally, what we've all wondered about is happening.

https://www.wired.com/story/google-phot ... rage-ends/
Free can't be free forever, dammit. ...Or.. the 1st taste is free
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Re: Google Photos

Post by Cortopassi » Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:04 am

Kriegsspiel wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:08 am
Like the man says, when you rely on cloud storage for all your files, it's tough to give it up. I think I'm more luddite than a lot of people, the only files I have on cloud storage are whatever's on my Google Drive. I back up the important ones onto non-cloud storage memory card periodically.
I have multiple backups of everything as well, but, with search and face tagging through GP, there is no substitute. Being able to pull out your phone and show a specific picture of certain family members from say 1975 is not easily reproduced with anything else that I know of, at least not free.

I still find it amazing You Tube hasn't started charging for the GBs per second that get uploaded!

100GB storage for $20/year, I suppose that's not too bad. We'll see what that price is in 10 years.
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Re: Google Photos

Post by Xan » Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:04 am

Cortopassi wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:04 am
Kriegsspiel wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:08 am
Like the man says, when you rely on cloud storage for all your files, it's tough to give it up. I think I'm more luddite than a lot of people, the only files I have on cloud storage are whatever's on my Google Drive. I back up the important ones onto non-cloud storage memory card periodically.
I have multiple backups of everything as well, but, with search and face tagging through GP, there is no substitute. Being able to pull out your phone and show a specific picture of certain family members from say 1975 is not easily reproduced with anything else that I know of, at least not free.

I still find it amazing You Tube hasn't started charging for the GBs per second that get uploaded!

100GB storage for $20/year, I suppose that's not too bad. We'll see what that price is in 10 years.
Really the problem is that you're donating all your family photos to Google for them to do whatever they want with. And also telling them who's who!
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Re: Google Photos

Post by Cortopassi » Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:38 am

Personally, maybe I am naive, but Google knowing that info does not at all bother me.
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Re: Google Photos

Post by vnatale » Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:23 am

Cortopassi wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:04 am
Kriegsspiel wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:08 am
Like the man says, when you rely on cloud storage for all your files, it's tough to give it up. I think I'm more luddite than a lot of people, the only files I have on cloud storage are whatever's on my Google Drive. I back up the important ones onto non-cloud storage memory card periodically.
I have multiple backups of everything as well, but, with search and face tagging through GP, there is no substitute. Being able to pull out your phone and show a specific picture of certain family members from say 1975 is not easily reproduced with anything else that I know of, at least not free.

I still find it amazing You Tube hasn't started charging for the GBs per second that get uploaded!

100GB storage for $20/year, I suppose that's not too bad. We'll see what that price is in 10 years.
I have 1.2 TB of photos at Google! That would be $120 a year for me!

I will definitely not pay that which then gives me two choices.

See what alternative pricing is for expanding my dropbox subscription (I'm already paying $100 plus for the business version).

Or, seed some of my external hard drives with the photos backed up on them at locations outside of my house. If I ever rent my first bank box to put gold in it that would obviously be one of my first choices. I can think of two friends whose homes I can also leave them at.

I have tons of external hard drives for backup purposes. I backup up constantly to at least three of them during the day (plus all active files are always in dropbox thus get backed up immediately).

Therefore, I'm only looking at solution that protects me in case of total loss of all that is in my house.

Vinny
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Google Photos

Post by vnatale » Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:28 am

Cortopassi wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:38 am
Personally, maybe I am naive, but Google knowing that info does not at all bother me.
I am in your camp.

For my entire career as an accountant, the big struggle is to always get properly organized all the pertinent information. Generally, I'm getting cooperation from people. But it's still a constant struggle due to mistakes, limited time, other priorities.

Google has to be just absolutely drowning in photos. What exactly are they going to do with my 1.2 TB of photos, IF they are even able to work their way through all of those photos along with all the other photos they have in their possession?

What would you do with them in a nefarious way and could you convince us that you'd have the resources to do so and that it would be practical to do so?

Vinny
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Google Photos

Post by vnatale » Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:35 am

I was going to read the article later. But just read it now.

That changes my options considerably.

1) The good news: This means your existing “high-quality” photos and videos won’t apply to the 15-GB limit, nor will any that you upload through next May.

That means I'd be starting at zero for June 1, 2021. My existing dropbox plan of 1 TB can easily handle all the new
ones for years as I'm not even close to using the 1 TB.

2) Amazon Photos offers unlimited, full-resolution photo storage, plus 5 GB video storage, but only for Prime members.

I read that and see that I will need to do nothing. I have been getting full resolution (no compression) storage with Amazon Prime. I will ALWAYS have Amazon Prime.

Vinny
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Google Photos

Post by Kriegsspiel » Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:39 am

Cortopassi wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:04 am
Kriegsspiel wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:08 am
Like the man says, when you rely on cloud storage for all your files, it's tough to give it up. I think I'm more luddite than a lot of people, the only files I have on cloud storage are whatever's on my Google Drive. I back up the important ones onto non-cloud storage memory card periodically.
search and face tagging through GP, there is no substitute.
Hah, that's the part I quickly came to dislike about facebook. People posting pictures of me on their page and tagging me in them.
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Re: Google Photos

Post by Xan » Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:40 am

vnatale wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:28 am
Cortopassi wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:38 am
Personally, maybe I am naive, but Google knowing that info does not at all bother me.
I am in your camp.

For my entire career as an accountant, the big struggle is to always get properly organized all the pertinent information. Generally, I'm getting cooperation from people. But it's still a constant struggle due to mistakes, limited time, other priorities.

Google has to be just absolutely drowning in photos. What exactly are they going to do with my 1.2 TB of photos, IF they are even able to work their way through all of those photos along with all the other photos they have in their possession?

What would you do with them in a nefarious way and could you convince us that you'd have the resources to do so and that it would be practical to do so?

Vinny
Well I don't know, but I don't want to find out. Google has a history of having political opinions and trying to crush those it disagrees with, for example. Will I be blackmailed for something in my photo trove if I get too noisy about something Google doesn't like?

Just saw your post on the other thread: would you want all your photos posted on the front page of the Wall Street Journal?
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Re: Google Photos

Post by vnatale » Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:45 am

Xan wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:40 am
vnatale wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:28 am
Cortopassi wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:38 am
Personally, maybe I am naive, but Google knowing that info does not at all bother me.
I am in your camp.

For my entire career as an accountant, the big struggle is to always get properly organized all the pertinent information. Generally, I'm getting cooperation from people. But it's still a constant struggle due to mistakes, limited time, other priorities.

Google has to be just absolutely drowning in photos. What exactly are they going to do with my 1.2 TB of photos, IF they are even able to work their way through all of those photos along with all the other photos they have in their possession?

What would you do with them in a nefarious way and could you convince us that you'd have the resources to do so and that it would be practical to do so?

Vinny
Well I don't know, but I don't want to find out. Google has a history of having political opinions and trying to crush those it disagrees with, for example. Will I be blackmailed for something in my photo trove if I get too noisy about something Google doesn't like?

Just saw your post on the other thread: would you want all your photos posted on the front page of the Wall Street Journal?
I'd be honored!

Just about every single one of them goes on Facebook for anyone in the world to see.

Vinny
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Google Photos

Post by flyingpylon » Thu Nov 12, 2020 11:17 am

Xan wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:40 am
Well I don't know, but I don't want to find out. Google has a history of having political opinions and trying to crush those it disagrees with, for example. Will I be blackmailed for something in my photo trove if I get too noisy about something Google doesn't like?
It goes far beyond that. A photo is not just a photo, it's a piece of a much larger puzzle that Google is able to put together based on all of the other information they have about you and everyone even remotely connected to you in some way.

Photos often contain faces, location data, and other details. Put that together with search history, maps usage, video views, email, ad tracking on millions of websites and a whole host of other data and it really adds up to something.
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Re: Google Photos

Post by InsuranceGuy » Thu Nov 12, 2020 11:29 am

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Last edited by InsuranceGuy on Mon Mar 08, 2021 5:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Google Photos

Post by Cortopassi » Thu Nov 12, 2020 11:41 am

InsuranceGuy wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 11:29 am
Cortopassi wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:04 am
I have multiple backups of everything as well, but, with search and face tagging through GP, there is no substitute. Being able to pull out your phone and show a specific picture of certain family members from say 1975 is not easily reproduced with anything else that I know of, at least not free.
I don't know if it qualifies as free, but nextcloud allows this same functionality for free (assuming you have an old computer with some storage and learn a little freebsd or similar). https://nextcloud.com/athome/

I could definitely help someone if they have interest.
Looked at this a little. Remote clouds do cost, seemingly more than Google. Home cloud, while I like the control idea, the biggest reason is to be sure my data is safe if my house burns down or tornado or flood kind of event.

I have literally spent days of my life face tagging photos. Being able to bring up obscure photos of a long dead relative is priceless.

If google knows where I am taking photos and the people in them, so be it.

Hell, I just did a simple search for a laptop computer for my daughter and now ads everywhere just happen to show me laptops. It is insidious, and I am fine with it.
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Re: Google Photos

Post by InsuranceGuy » Thu Nov 12, 2020 12:25 pm

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Re: Google Photos

Post by dualstow » Tue May 17, 2022 4:39 pm

vnatale wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:35 am

2) Amazon Photos offers unlimited, full-resolution photo storage, plus 5 GB video storage, but only for Prime members.

I read that and see that I will need to do nothing. I have been getting full resolution (no compression) storage with Amazon Prime. I will ALWAYS have Amazon Prime.
🚧 2020 Thread here

Did you end up going with Amazon, Vinny? i remember uploading one photo in the past to confirm that it worked. Today, I got a warning from Google that my account is 75% full. I’ll probably delete some old emails with large attachments. I’m also thinking about getting a flickr pro account.
Really, though, it think I would be happiest printing a photo book and maybe burning some blu-ray discs, as I have a ton of them just melting on the shelf.
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Re: Google Photos

Post by vnatale » Tue May 17, 2022 9:54 pm

dualstow wrote:
Tue May 17, 2022 4:39 pm

vnatale wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 10:35 am


2) Amazon Photos offers unlimited, full-resolution photo storage, plus 5 GB video storage, but only for Prime members.

I read that and see that I will need to do nothing. I have been getting full resolution (no compression) storage with Amazon Prime. I will ALWAYS have Amazon Prime.



🚧 2020 Thread here

Did you end up going with Amazon, Vinny? i remember uploading one photo in the past to confirm that it worked. Today, I got a warning from Google that my account is 75% full. I’ll probably delete some old emails with large attachments. I’m also thinking about getting a flickr pro account.
Really, though, it think I would be happiest printing a photo book and maybe burning some blu-ray discs, as I have a ton of them just melting on the shelf.


I did go with Amazon. However, subsequent to the above Amazon put a limit as to how much space they'd give you for free. Once I reached that limit I left all those photos there and have backed up all photos after then to multiple external hard drives.
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Google Photos

Post by Cortopassi » Tue May 17, 2022 10:48 pm

I started paying the $20/year to Google a couple months ago for 100GB. Why I was even concerned about $20 a year I don't know.
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Re: Google Photos

Post by vnatale » Wed May 18, 2022 7:02 am

Cortopassi wrote:
Tue May 17, 2022 10:48 pm

I started paying the $20/year to Google a couple months ago for 100GB. Why I was even concerned about $20 a year I don't know.


My pictures use over 1 TB of space. I think they set the limit at 1 TB for free. So those first ones I've left there with the newer ones not there.

Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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Re: Google Photos

Post by dualstow » Wed May 18, 2022 8:14 am

MangoMan wrote:
Wed May 18, 2022 7:06 am
Deleting old emails with attachments will free up a lot of space. There is an app that can scan your Gmail account and rank the file size.
That’s where I start. Not with an app, but by searching for has:attachment and just getting rid of a lot of that. I think I get a break for uploading from a Pixel, ie a googlephone, and yet space is still running out.
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Re: Google Photos

Post by dualstow » Wed May 18, 2022 8:19 am

Cortopassi wrote:
Thu Nov 12, 2020 9:38 am
Personally, maybe I am naive, but Google knowing that info does not at all bother me.
Doesn’t bother me that much either. I wouldn’t want google to be my sole repository since my dad was hacked and lost the entirety of his email and google docs. But for me, the privacy trade-off isn’t so bad. Maybe it helps that i don’t have many family pics on it.
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Re: Google Photos

Post by Cortopassi » Wed May 18, 2022 10:46 am

MangoMan wrote:
Wed May 18, 2022 7:06 am
Cortopassi wrote:
Tue May 17, 2022 10:48 pm
I started paying the $20/year to Google a couple months ago for 100GB. Why I was even concerned about $20 a year I don't know.
Deleting old emails with attachments will free up a lot of space. There is an app that can scan your Gmail account and rank the file size.
Yeah, I do that all the time. Most of my space taken up by photos and videos. Thanks. But interestingly enough, a month after I started paying, my wife and I "upgraded" to a Pixel 4a 5G phone, and photos and videos taken with those and some other series of Google phones don't count toward capacity.
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