Picasa Software - newby question

[Papa Bear]

I just started using Google's Picasa. I know others here at VFTT are also using it. My old picture server is not working too well, although the old pictures still display fine (thank goodness), so I figured I needed to bite the bullet and start using another site. There's a lot I like about Picasa, especially how it automatically syncs with the albums on my PC.

But there's one thing I haven't figured out: Picasa sets 1600 pixels as the maximum width when it uploads my pictures. That's fine and dandy, But I can't find out how to link to a picture with this maximum width. It gives a set of alternatives (144, 288, 400 & 800) but that's it. I figured out I could capture the URL of the picture it uses in the slide show display window (usually 1152 pixels) but I can't get 1600.

The closest I can get is when I hit the zoom button, which causes a full size image to appear in the regular frame and allows you to drag it around to see different parts of the picture which lie outside the frame. But I can't embed that as a JPEG in a report such as I can put on the forum here, or on my own web site.

Anyone know if I can get a URL for the full 1600 width picture?

 

[DougPaul]

I don't use Picasa, but I was able to extract the url from the web page by 2 different methods.
* Display full size image, and (seamonkey browser) View>Page Info>Media and find it in the list of links.
* Display full size image, and click on download. The url is listed in my download status window

I didn't find any way for the web page to give the link to you.

FYI: http://lh3.ggpht.com/papabear.newyo...qa33Wo1AdBU/d/2008-09-07 Chimney Pond 001.JPG
(first image from 2008-09-07 Up to Chimney Pond

Doug

 

[Papa Bear]

I don't use Picasa, but I was able to extract the url from the web page by 2 different methods.
* Display full size image, and (seamonkey browser) View>Page Info>Media and find it in the list of links.
* Display full size image, and click on download. The url is listed in my download status window

I didn't find any way for the web page to give the link to you.

FYI: http://lh3.ggpht.com/papabear.newyo...qa33Wo1AdBU/d/2008-09-07 Chimney Pond 001.JPG
(first image from 2008-09-07 Up to Chimney Pond

Doug

Sorry Doug, When I clicked on your link I get
"Not Found
The requested URL /papabear.newyork/SNAv2CNu1OI/AAAAAAAAAE4/qa33Wo1AdBU/d/2008-09-07%20Chimney%20Pond%20001.JPG was not found on this server."

I fooled around with that idea too, and the images come and go. I think they may be generated on the fly when you display the full image, and then they disappear.

 

[DougPaul]

Still works for me. (And yes, I cleared the cache.)

Also works when I use "lynx -source <url> > file.jpg" to download it. (lynx is a text browser, "lynx -source" downloads the file.)

Doug

 

[MichaelJ]

I believe Picasa does this intentionally - to quote, "Picasa disallows hot-links to the full-size images unless the referring page is on blogspot.com. However, they will allow any page to link to the various scaled-down images. The largest size they offer is 800×800; any image whose width and height are both less than 800 will be returned in its original size, but anything larger will be proportionally reduced to fit within 800×800."

Of course what they *really* want you to do is use their embedding code, an HTML snippet that gives you a pretty nice thumbnail and link, actually, but which will not work on vBulletin or PHPbb or most other discussion boards which disallow HTML embedding.

 

[Papa Bear]

Still works for me. (And yes, I cleared the cache.)

Also works when I use "lynx -source <url> > file.jpg" to download it. (lynx is a text browser, "lynx -source" downloads the file.)

Doug

It's the cache. I cleared my cache and all the hot links to larger images stopped working. Clear yours and I think you'll see the same thing. If you don't see the same thing, it may be something specialized you are doing. Try vanilla Moziilla or IE - I need to have stuff the ordinary user can use. I don't really want the user to have to download a 500 kb image and then display it.

I believe Picasa does this intentionally - to quote, "Picasa disallows hot-links to the full-size images unless the referring page is on blogspot.com. However, they will allow any page to link to the various scaled-down images. The largest size they offer is 800×800; any image whose width and height are both less than 800 will be returned in its original size, but anything larger will be proportionally reduced to fit within 800×800."

This seems to be the case. Aftrer clearing my cache I now get consistant results with a 400 pixel width thumbnail (what you see in my report here) and an 800 pixel image you get when you click on the thumb. It's not what I wanted (I like BIG pictures. But woe to those with lmitede bandwidth).

New Question: One option I have would be to link the Picasa Album page with all the buttons that go with it. Would folks here prefer that? Here's what I mean:

case 1) Link to an 800 pixel image


Click for 800 pixel image

Case 2: Link to album page:


Click for Album page

Which do you prefer?

 

[Mark Schaefer]

Yes, I think Michael has it just right, and he found the Picasa reference as well.

This is somewhat on par with Webshots which I use. Previously I tried to see if I could modify the forum post tags that Webshots provides; to try to hotlink larger images than the maximum 600 pixel thumbnail width that they provide. I was blocked at every attempt to hot link a full size image in, or even to directly link to the largest size image that Webshots could store via the thumbnail link. At first I thought the latter condition was allowed, but when I cleared my browser cache and/or logged out of webshots to test whether it would work for others -- the large image would no longer display. I was trying to bypass the advertising which displays in the Webshots gallery with a free account. I never did find a Webshots disclaimer that it was not allowed, but I concluded that it was specifically blocked.

Nice that Picasa allows 800 pixels which is more than Webshots, and with less Advertising on the free accounts.

 

[Mark Schaefer]

Which do you prefer?

I tried both with Firefox 3.01. I prefer the first.

BTW, that is precisely what I was trying to do in Webshots, but was blocked. I like it!

edit: But I guess the second does provide the link into the rest of the full album which is also nice. Both have merits. Nice to see that Picasa has minimal (if any) advertising.

 

[Papa Bear]

By the way, here's what you get if you use their code to create an embedded thumbnail / hot link: Click for page with Picasa embedding code. Note: this is precisely their code and nothing else (um, except the background color).

As you might expect, they hot link to the album page, and they also link to the album as a whole in the caption. Not bad if you have a plain web page and you need help making a simple table. Lots of folks like that out there.

As far as I can see, no advertizing.

 

[DougPaul]

Still works for me. (And yes, I cleared the cache.)

Also works when I use "lynx -source <url> > file.jpg" to download it. (lynx is a text browser, "lynx -source" downloads the file.)

It's the cache. I cleared my cache and all the hot links to larger images stopped working. Clear yours and I think you'll see the same thing. If you don't see the same thing, it may be something specialized you are doing.

As noted in my original post, I did clear the cache.

Try vanilla Moziilla or IE - I need to have stuff the ordinary user can use. I don't really want the user to have to download a 500 kb image and then display it.

Vanilla Mozilla is obsolete, Seamonkey is the successor. (Firefox is also a fork from Mozilla.) IE does not run in the Linux environment. (IE is also a massive security hole--I wouldn't run it even if I could.)

If your web pages are limited to specific browsers, then you are doing something wrong. (There are standards for html--some html production environments and browsers deliberately violate the standards. Mozilla, Seamonkey, and Firefox attempt to adhere to the standards, IE is infamous for using "extentions" to the standards.)

I used lynx (an entirely separate program) to download the file to prove that my link did not require seamonkey or any graphical browser.

As of this morning:
* Seamonkey (new invocation, cache cleared) still works.
* Lynx (new invocation, no cache) still works
* Lftp (an extended ftp client, new invocation, no cache) works

To improve my security, I use a local software proxy (http://www.junkbusters.com) between Seamonkey and the internet. If I bypass the proxy, Seamonkey returns a file not found message. Thus it looks to me like the file is really there at the url in my link, but Picasa is presumably doing something different based upon the ancillary information handed out in an http GET request. (Junkbuster alters this ancillary info.)

FWIW, this is the first time for Seamonkey that I have had to bypass the proxy to get something to "work" (or, in this case, not work ), so this behavior is pretty rare. It looks to me like Picasa is either doing something very unusual or is violating the standards.


EDIT: Rereading MichaelJ's post, I see the quote "Picasa disallows hot-links to the full-size images unless the referring page is on blogspot.com". My junkbuster setup removes the referring page, so the explanation is unusual (but legal) behavior by the web server.

Doug

 

[Papa Bear]

As noted in my original post, I did clear the cache.


Vanilla Mozilla is obsolete, Seamonkey is the successor. (Firefox is also a fork from Mozilla.) IE does not run in the Linux environment. (IE is also a massive security hole--I wouldn't run it even if I could.)

If your web pages are limited to specific browsers, then you are doing something wrong. (There are standards for html--some html production environments and browsers deliberately violate the standards. Mozilla, Seamonkey, and Firefox attempt to adhere to the standards, IE is infamous for using "extentions" to the standards.)

Doug

Rather an elitist attitude, I try to make my web pages and reports work on Browsers most others use, not on Browsers I like.

Yes I meant Firefox, not Mozilla. I usually call it Mozilla Firefox.

If you restrict your self to things that work on the Browsers you mentioned, you will have a potential audience of about 1 %. If you limit you pages to features that don't work on the big 3 or 4 (IE, FF, Opera and Safari) than you are not a web developer, you are a web user. Good luck.

 

[DougPaul]

I think you have misinterpreted my comments.

Rather an elitist attitude, I try to make my web pages and reports work on Browsers most others use, not on Browsers I like.

If you restrict your self to things that work on the Browsers you mentioned, you will have a potential audience of about 1 %. If you limit you pages to features that don't work on the big 3 or 4 (IE, FF, Opera and Safari) than you are not a web developer, you are a web user. Good luck.

No, quite the opposite--I try to make my web pages work on all standards compliant browsers so that everyone can view my pages without difficulty. (IE tries to be able to view standards compliant html.)

As a user, I choose to use standards compliant browsers that are reasonably secure. (And, of course, run in my computing environment.) That currently includes Seamonkey, Firefox, and Lynx. (In some respects, Firefox is a subset of Seamonkey.) I sometimes have difficulty with web pages that are not standards compliant. I also use the Junkbuster html proxy to improve my computer security. (Occasionally this can break pages, but this is the first time that it "fixed" a page.)

Some web page development software uses the IE extensions and thus may not view properly on non-IE browsers. I attempt to avoid such proprietary extensions.

Doug