Use Picasa To Upload Online Images

Every day or so, I'll get an email from a friend to check out online photos they recently uploaded from their digital camera. Unfortunately, many of these online albums are hosted by annoying companies like SnapFish or Shutterfly that are more focused on selling you prints than in making your online viewing experience enjoyable (or even tolerable). It's a somewhat painful experience.

So, here's the best way I've found to manage your online photo galleries—outside of buying a Mac and using iPhoto. Feel free to pass this on to the next person who sends you to a site that either a) requires you to login before you can use it b) has a terrible user interface or c) makes it impossible to download hi-res pics for free.

First, download Picasa. It's super easy to use and is a great way to organize and store photos on your hard drive. After you import your photos, select the ones you want and then hit the button on the bottom that says "Web Album." Once the album is uploaded, send the url out to whomever you want.

(Note: You can also use a Flickr plugin that creates a button that allows you to directly upload your Picasa photos to a Flickr gallery. It works well, but since I don't use much of the cool Flickr functionality--like easy blog imaging, etc.--that often, Picasa's web albums works just as well.)