One of my biggest grudge against Picasa was that it limits the free account to just 1 GB of photo uploads, and I was forced to explore other unlimited free photo sharing websites. However, Google has recently made some subtle changes in their policy which let you enjoy unlimited free photo and video storage on Picasa.
Here are the changes:
- Photos that are below 800 px do not count towards your storage limit.
- Videos below 15 minutes do not count towards your storage limit.
What this basically means is that you can upload unlimited photos for free on Picasa, as long as their resolution is below 800 pixels. Similarly, you can upload unlimited videos on Picasa, provided that length of each video is less than 15 minutes.
The changes are mentioned by a Google employee in Picasa help forum here.
Even if you have photos that are of higher resolution (like the ones taken by a digital camera), you can still reduce their resolution while uploading. You can follow the steps here for that. Do remember that reducing the resolution of image will impact its quality, but 800 px images are good enough if you just want to use them in online albums, or even on your blog. The prints might not be very clear, though.
If you use Picasa software for uploading photos to Picasa web albums, then it becomes even easier. You can change default upload settings in Picasa, so that the images are always uploaded in less than 800 px format.
So, if you also shunned Picasa because of limit on free storage space, this is a good opportunity to check out Picasa Web Albums again.