5 Reasons The Cloud is Inefficient for Managing Photos

And why Photo Nanny is still searching (or may have to develop) a better, more efficient alternative.

1. Cloud upload speeds and processes are inefficient.
2. Cloud download speeds and processes are inefficient.
3. Managing photos on the cloud doesn’t mean my photos at home are organized.
4. Having my photos ONLY on the cloud and not on my own hard drive means I’m vulnerable to on-line hacking or at the mercy of on-line companies storing my files.
5. Many “batch” processes which can be done on a computer are unavailable on a phone and/or through Cloud-based photo management applications.

That’s it in a nutshell, but if you want to know the details on why I make these five declarations, read on:

With the invention of the web and all its wonders, we’re all being carried along a path to “the cloud,” whether we want to or not. What I mean by that is the cloud is a great idea and maybe someday all the applications and transfer times will be faster and better, but at the moment, web companies are pushing our programs and data off our hard drives and onto the cloud as the best thing since sliced bread, and in reality, IT JUST ISN’T!

The reason it isn’t the best thing for all of us right now is IT’S JUST NOT THAT EFFICIENT. It seem people/programmers are more focused on mobile access to data than they are to how we as individuals actually maintain control and manage our data. They are dragging us along, but they’re not paying attention to the fact that our ability to manage is being hampered, slowed down, made less efficient because of their interest in a “have-it-everywhere” goal, and they’re focusing on making it look “sleek” and “clean” but not on the inefficiencies they are creating by their push to be mobile.

I can list dozens of examples of applications and programming “updates” that have actually made my work less efficient. How can that be called an update? I call that MOVING BACKWARDS. Updates should improve processes – make them more efficient – not just “look better.”

A perfect example is Google’s email program g-Mail. I began using it many years ago because I was tired of getting a new email address every time I got a new internet provider. Yippee – a free email account I can take with me regardless of how I reach the internet. Sweet. But there has been a downside. Google, in its effort to make the interface “clean” (I call it Apple-izing it) simply made me work harder to get the same results. Do I really care if it looks “clean” if I now have to click two times just to update the Re: line in an email because they’ve “hidden” it when I hit REPLY? Does it make sense that I now have to click multiple times to see my contacts – uhm, something I do 20 times a day? Why do I now have to click multiple places to do things I DO EVERY DAY ALL DAY IN ALMOST EVERY EMAIL? Shouldn’t those predictable tasks and frequent tasks be simplified by an update, not made more cumbersome?

The bottom line is now that Google has announced it is ending Picasa in the future – migrating all of our pictures to their Photos program, THERE IS NO CLOUD APPLICATION OUT THERE TO HELP US MANAGE THINGS EVEN HALF AS WELL as the desktop application provided by Picasa. For those of us who already have the Picasa desktop. we can still use it to manage things and edit pictures, but moving our files to the web is going to be more challenging going forward regardless of which internet service we decide to use.

Here’s why:

There isn’t a single web-based application (in the cloud) that allows me to upload batches of folders from my computer. They all allow me to upload individual files, but if I’m managing my files in named, sorted folders on my computer, I now have to do it all over again on the web. RIDICULOUS!!!

I’ll continue looking for the best alternative cost-wise and more importantly whatever allows me the best and the most efficient process because my time (and yours) is more valuable than anything. I just wish that someone programming for these applications would speak to people like us…real users…power users…so they could pay attention to what matters – not just appearances.