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Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

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Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#371

Post by DoreenMichele »

duskwuff wrote: post #361
DoreenMichele wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit doesn't let you adopt a subreddit if the mod is active anywhere on Reddit, even if you as a user can't see it. The subreddit has to be completely abandoned and the mod account has to be dead. I see no reason why Google can't have similar policies that if the Gmail that controls the blog is completely inactive to the point where it gets deleted, any blogs it controlled can now be recycled.

Subreddits are built upon user activity, and need active moderation to keep that under control. A policy of allowing the subreddit to be passed on to a new moderator if the previous moderator is gone -- which doesn't even remove any existing content -- is eminently reasonable. Blogspot blogs, on the other hand, are primarily about the author's content. Destroying that content simply because the author is no longer re…

I think you are not really hearing my point. I'm saying there are many blogspot URLs that have been claimed and that aren't really in use. In most cases, these are not sites with substantial content of any kind.

There's currently no means to recycle them that I know of. I deleted one of my own and can't reclaim the URL. It just no longer exists. Period.

I think that's a problem.

Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#373

Post by joshuamorton »

WalterBright wrote: post #340
phoe-krk wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SQLite is an ubiquitous and well-tested piece of software that is going to stand the test of time and survive the next twenty years. There are very few pieces of software that I am able to praise like that with a clean conscience; SQLite is definitely one of them though. You might find it worthwhile to read e.g. about its memory allocation strategy, or its testing strategy. Also, I don't think that the image files th…

> likely just their indices and metadata notes.txt will work just fine, then, even for several thousand photos. I don't see a need for a database until you've got far more than that. The tree file system works tolerably well as a "database". As for searching, I know how to use "grep" and "locate".

Tags are more flexible than folders. An actual index let's you search by tag. Folders don't let you search for all photos of your mother, or in 1987, or in Alabama, or some combination thereof.

Folders are a limiting api and we shouldn't limit ourselves to strictly hierarchical organizational structures for non hierarchal data.

Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#375

Post by kartayyar »

wolco2 wrote: post #226
kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #178

Surprised to see the level of anger here about this. This is not the usual "Google kills product", it's the type of thing that HN loves to say they would be happy to pay for ("Just give me something that does A B C and doesn't show me ads and I would be happy to pay for it!!!", well I guess until you are actually asked to pay for it). Also, as a general rule, people should welcome big cos moving away from the "free s…

I think offering something for free and unlimited for 10 years and suddenly charging for it seems like bait and switch. If you have an existing free unlimited plan they should grandfather that in. In a year they will start charging for gmail. In two or three they will start charging for search.

What is the bait and switch ? The stuff you uploaded already is still free. It's for more usage.

You don't like it, you have the option to take your photos somewhere else.

Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#376

Post by dontfiremepls »

kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #178

Surprised to see the level of anger here about this. This is not the usual "Google kills product", it's the type of thing that HN loves to say they would be happy to pay for ("Just give me something that does A B C and doesn't show me ads and I would be happy to pay for it!!!", well I guess until you are actually asked to pay for it). Also, as a general rule, people should welcome big cos moving away from the "free s…

Because it's anti-competitive dumping. The dirty secret of SV is that it's an enormous dumping scheme: burn billions of dollars of money to offer 'free' or goods and services, gain a dominant position in the market by driving the honestly priced competition into the ground, then jack up the prices and fleece the customers. Uber is the poster boy of this strategy, but it's not the only one.

The honest approach would be to either grandfather existing customers at the promised price point ($0) possibly at a loss, or shut it down and offer a one-click migrate-my-data button and empower customers to shop around for the price / quality tradeoff they are willing to pay for. Of course, that will never happen, because antitrust in this country is toothless, paid for by the exact same corporations that engage in anti-competitive behavior.

Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#377

Post by renchap »

warrentr wrote: post #154

Has anyone found a good family friendly alternative? In particular I would really like to: - Pay for the service (sustainable/trustworthy business model) - Be able to very tightly control access to albums as I really don't want kid photos ending up on facebook or similar due to crazy aunt kathy (in google photos anyone with access can add anyone else and until recently there was no way to remove people) - Ability to…

You can have a try at https://www.notos.co/ for the privacy-minded sharing part. This is my main focus for the product. No mobile app (yet) or sync as backups and sharing require very different products and my focus is on the later for now.

Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#378

Post by akerl_ »

WalterBright wrote: post #329

> Google Photos will start charging for storage once more than 15 gigs on the account have been used. 15 gigs of photos is nothing. > Google is also introducing a new policy of deleting data from inactive accounts that haven’t been logged in to for at least two years. Gak. Randomly deleting your photos. No way I'm relying on cloud storage. I'm a very long term investor. I received a letter a few months ago from a mut…

I can’t tell if this is just hyperbole, but if an account is inactive and unpaid for 2 years, I don’t see why they’d be expected to just sit on that data forever.

I can’t imagine being 5-10 years behind on things that “need attending to”. What is a definition of “thing that needs attending to” that can sustain a 5-10 year delay?

Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#379

Post by harha »

echelon wrote: post #319
kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #178

Surprised to see the level of anger here about this. This is not the usual "Google kills product", it's the type of thing that HN loves to say they would be happy to pay for ("Just give me something that does A B C and doesn't show me ads and I would be happy to pay for it!!!", well I guess until you are actually asked to pay for it). Also, as a general rule, people should welcome big cos moving away from the "free s…

I'm actually glad to see this. Unlimited storage is unsustainable. I don't like seeing things tied to advertising revenue. It's not comfortable from a privacy perspective, and it's certainly not competitive for other players wanting to enter the space without the dollars from Google's huge advertising funnel/marketplace/ecosystem. You'll notice Google also started to clamp down on Gmail trash storage space, and I'll…

Possibly, but given its google I wouldn’t assume it’s more (or less) respecting of user privacy just because it costs something.

For the business products there may be strong business rationale behind it (it would categorically rule out too many applications), but for a consumer product I doubt that they don’t try making money both ways.

Re: Google Photos will end its free unlimited storage in June 2021

#380

Post by com2kid »

identity0 wrote: post #358
vvoyer wrote: post #307

I pay for Google Photos and you should too if you care about your photos. I've used Dropbox, Apple Photos and Google Photos. Google Photos is hands down the best photo application for individuals. Mostly because its face/object/place/whatever recognition is the best of its kind. Dropbox: they are ignoring the photos needs from users. They focus on "enterprise cloud storage" and "workplace sharing". Apple: I love the…

Do you actually use that? Maybe it's just because I have few photos, but I always thought it was a massive gimmick. If I wanted to see photos from a specific vacation, I just remember when it happened, or look up the location in the geotagging thing. No ML needed. I've never once wished I could see all my photos of "dog on beach" in one place.

> Do you actually use that? Maybe it's just because I have few photos

I use it all the time.

I wanted to recommend to a friend a restaurant I'd visited in San Diego, I couldn't remember the name of it but I knew I'd taken a picture of the food there.

"Food San Diego" and all my food pictures from my trip to San Diego pop up. Tap more info, boom, map appears with the restaurant name on it.

If I wanted to remember what year I went to San Diego, well, I'd either search in Google Photos, or in my timeline on Google Maps. (which is another way to find the name of the restaurant!)

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