Rumor: Picasa Albums To Replace Orkut Albums

Although there is no official word from Google, it looks like the boys and girls at Orkut may be working on replacing the Orkut Albums (which really must go) with Picasa Albums.

(ZDnet.com) After Google added a new entry into their robots.txt file tonight (Disallow: /orkut/albums), I began doing some research into Orkut's photo album feature. [...]

When Google adds something to this file, it almost always means something is coming.

I sure hope so, as Picasa Albums would be an excellent compliment to many users, especially those gifted in the arts. If they do merge these two (or at least replace the Orkut albums) I wonder whether or not they will use the standard camera icon, or use Picasa's logo instead?

Note: Orkut himself seems to be enjoying Picasa Web Albums while visiting Brazil (hat tip: An Anonymous reader).

Is Picasa Advertising On Orkut?

Ironically, this seems very familiar to what Joga did last year. The only difference is that the Picasa team seems to be placing the ad in a much more convenient place inside of the Orkut Albums. Dreamchaser gives the details...

(Dreamchaser's Blog) [W]hile I was checking out one of my friends profile page I wanted to check her album and when I navigated to the album page right beneath the display picture next to options I could see a new ad pop in which read "Find, Edit and share your photos - Google's photo organizer" which when clicked would re-direct to Picasa's Home Page. [...]

The integration of such ads at Album Page is a really good marketting [sic] way to push Google's product that specilizes in Photo organizing and editing. Way to go google!

You can see a larger screen shot over here.

I have not seen the ad yet, although to be honest I do not frequently scroll through Orkut albums, unless of course people are hosting some recent drawings they have done (yeah, I'm an art fan).

Although it is cool to see Picasa advertising inside Orkut, what would really make my day is if Google substituted the Orkut albums for Picasa Albums, as users would be able to actually comment, share and edit each other images without having to download them manually.