WebProNews

Tag: Picnik

  • Flickr Partners With Aviary For Photo Editing Wizardry

    Flickr’s given users some sparkling new tools with how they can edit photos on the site thanks to a new partnership with web-based photo editing service Aviary. Aviary has been around as an app for both iOS and Android devices as well as a web app that features a set of easy-to-use tools that can greatly improve the quality of photos, and with 3.5 million photos added to Flickr every day, that’s a lot of photos that are going to look a lot sharper in the near future.

    According to Flickr’s official blog, Aviary will be launching on Thursday, April 5, and will continue to be rolled out over the next couple of weeks. As users continue to get acquainted with Aviary, you’ll likely notice that photos load and render faster. Below is a glimpse of what you can expect to see once Aviary starts to show up in profiles. You can access the photo editor via the left-hand Actions drop-down menu. Once Aviary is available to you, you’ll see an option that reads, “Edit photo in Aviary.” If you don’t see it, well… just wait longer. It’ll be there soon enough.

    Additionally, Aviary’s got a blog post demonstration of how simple yet effective it is to use their editing tools within Flickr.

    The partnership with Aviary comes as Flickr’s previous partnership with another photo editing service, Picnik, is shuttering its windows later this month, April 19. Picnik was acquired by Google in 2010 but I guess having Picnik and Picasa was considered a redundancy for Google. Or, as Google phrases it, the Picnik team will be “helping to create photo editing magic in Google’s products.”

  • Google Ends Picnik, Urchin, Needlebase, Social Graph API, Google Message Continuity

    “Take heed! The ants have invaded.”

    Picnik users will be familiar with all of those cute little picnic-related messages that appear while Picnik carries out various functions. Well, that’s the message that appears now, as Google prepares to shut down the service.

    Picnik will be closing April 19, 2012.

    In fact, Picnik is only one of a handful of Google products the company is shutting down. In a blog post called “Renewing Old Resolutions For The New Year” Google announced that it will be shutting down: Picnik, Urchin, Needlebase, Google Message Continuity (GMC) and the Social Graph API.

    The Picnik team says on the Picnik blog:

    Amazing photos are created in Picnik so we have launched a new feature,Picnik Takeout, that easily downloads your photos to your desktop in convenient zip files. You may also elect to copy your photos to Google+ where you can store and share your creations. You may request your photos at any time and use this handy tool as many times as you like until our closing date of April 19, 2012.

    Premium customers will get a full refund within the week, the team says. Additionally, premium features will be free to all until the service shuts down.

    On GMC, Google says, “In December 2010 we launched an email disaster recovery product for enterprise customers that use Google’s cloud to back up emails originally sent or received in an on-premise, Microsoft Exchange system. In the time since we launched, we’ve seen hundreds of businesses sign up for it. By comparison, in that same time, we’ve seen millions of businesses move entirely to the cloud with Google Apps, benefitting from disaster recovery capabilities built directly into Apps. Going forward we’ve decided to focus our efforts on Google Apps and end support for GMC. Current GMC customers will be able to use GMC for the duration of their contract and are encouraged to consider using Google Apps as their primary messaging and collaboration platform.”

    Regarding Needlebase, the company says, “We are retiring this data management platform, which we acquired from ITA Software, on June 1, 2012. The technology is being evaluated for integration into Google’s other data-related initiatives.”

    Regarding the Social Graph API, Google says, “This API makes information about the public connections between people on the web available for developers. The API isn’t experiencing the kind of adoption we’d like, and is being deprecated as of today. It will be fully retired on April 20, 2012.”

    Finally, with regards to Urchin, Google says, “In 2005 we acquired Urchin, whose online web analytics product became the foundation for Google Analytics, helping businesses of all sizes measure their websites and online marketing. We’re fully committed to building an industry-leading online analytics product, so we’re saying goodbye to the client-hosted version, known as Urchin Software. New Urchin Software licenses will no longer be available after March 2012.”

    In the same announcement, Google said it is also open sourcing Google Sky Map.

  • Google Integrates Picnik with Picasa Web Albums

    Today, Google started integrating some features from Picnik (acquired earlier this year) into Picasa Web Albums. The features allow users to edit photos.

    Picasa Web Albums users using English, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Vietnamese versions will be able to use Picnik photo editing.

    To do so, simply click "edit in Picnik" from the edit drop-down menu or the new Picnik icon.

    Picasa gets Picnik integration

    "Then, Picnik away by applying an effect, adding a sticker, or exploring your own creative path with advanced tools," Google says. "When you are done editing your photo, save back to your album by either replacing the existing image or making a new copy."

    Picnik as a standalone service is still available (including a premium version in "3 tasty flavors").

  • Google Buys Cloud Photo Editing Service

    Google Buys Cloud Photo Editing Service

    Google announced today it has acquired Picnik, a cloud-based photo editing service. The company consists of about 20 employees.

    "Google processes petabytes of data every day, and with their worldwide infrastructure and world-class team, it is truly the best home we could have found. Under the Google roof we’ll reach more people than ever before, impacting more lives and making more photos more awesome," says Picnik in its announcement.

    Picnik lists the following as its features:

    Picnik Acquired By Google– Fix your photos in just one click
    – Use advanced controls to fine-tune your results
    – Crop, resize, and rotate in real-time
    – Tons of special effects, from artsy to fun
    – Astoundingly fast, right in your browser
    – Awesome fonts and top-quality type tool
    – Basketfuls of shapes from hand-picked designers
    – Works on Mac, Windows, and Linux
    – No download required, nothing to install

    The basic version of Picnik is free, but there is a premium version with more features available for $24.95 a year.

    "We’re not announcing any significant changes to Picnik today, though we’ll be working hard on integration and new features," says Google Product Management Director Brian Axe. "As well, we’d like to continue supporting all existing Picnik partners so that users will continue to be able to add their photos from other photo sharing sites, make edits in the cloud and then save and share to all relevant networks."

    "We’re very impressed with the Picnik team and the product they’ve created, and we’re excited to welcome them to Google," says Axe. "We’re looking forward to collaborating closely with them to improve the online photo editing experience on the web. In the meantime, we encourage you to head to Picnik, import some of your photos from Picasa Web Albums, Flickr or Facebook and try your hand at photo editing in the cloud!"

    Financial details of the acquisition are unknown at this point. Should Photoshop makers Adobe be worried?