Who Will Dominate Orkut? Picasa, Or Slide.com?

Several days ago Google announced that they were making it easier for users to post images from Picasa Albums onto their friends scrapbook.

(Official Orkut Blog) In order to make it simpler to add photos, you can now access all your Picasa Web Albums from the photo picker. Simply go to your friend's scrapbook, click on "add photo" and select the "Picasa Web Album" tab in the photo picker [...]

This way if you've got hundreds of photos on Picasa Web (like me!) you can easily have your pick of the best ones by grabbing it right from the album, rather than having to re-upload photos from your computer.

While I am excited that Google is finally exposing more users to Picasa (as many people have yet to discover Picasa) this may be in response to Slide.com dominating the scene ever since Google allowed users to send fancy scraps to one another.

Before diving into whether or not Slide.com can handle Picasa's entrance into the scrapbook, here are some instructions (with images) on how to add your Picasa Ablum to your friend's scrapbook.

After visiting your friend's scrapbook, locate and click on the add photo button ...



...which will force a new window to "pop up." Next, select the Picasa Web Albums tab...



...and choose which album you would like to insert.



Last but not least, select the image you would like to use...



...and it should appear in your friend's scrapbook for all to see.

As far as competition goes, this feature does give Picasa an advantage over its rivals, although I am not too sure if it will dethrone Slide in the long run.

While both Picasa and Slide allow users to embed slide shows, what separates Slide from Picasa is that it gives users the ability to insert music within, which makes viewing images a whole lot easier.

Note: Hopefully the Picasa team will consider something similar, although I would not be surprised if they decided to outsource the audio to sites like Odeo.

New Feature: Add Picasa Album, Blogger To Orkut

(Hat Tip: Rupush and Inside Orkut Brasil)

The boys and girls at Google have created a new feature that allows users to insert their photo albums or weblogs inside their Orkut profiles.

All you need is a site feed and Orkut will display your album/blog for your friends and family to see.

(Orkut Edit Feeds) Want to share your photos from Fotolog, Picasa Web Albums or Flickr? Have a blog on Blogger, WordPress or LiveJournal?

Now, you can add your blog, photos, events, bookmarks and more to your orkut profile. Add the website or RSS/Atom feed address below and orkut will automatically import it and fetch new items.

If you already use Picasa Web Albums or Blogger, Orkut will automatically discover them for you and ask if you want to add these sites to your profile.

To add a site to your Orkut profile simply find out your the site's RSS feed (simply look for the "orange square" in your browser or on the page).



Then right click on the link.



Next, visit your profile page and click on the Edit Feeds button (or click here)...



...and paste the link you copied earlier into the space next to the funky orange square.



Next, click on the add button to the side...



...and type in the correct "word" to pass Google's "are you an evil robot or happy human" test.



Finally, click the "add button" in the lower right hand corner, and if you have proved yourself to be one of the lucky creatures known as human, you and your friends will see your blog/album on your profile page.



If you click on it (say a blog) you will see your posts wrapped in blue.

Great job Google! Now if only we could get RSS feeds for forums inside Orkut, then you would attract more visitors from the US of A (hint, hint!)

More Evidence Of Picasa Orkut Integration?

(Hat Tip: Luis Guilherme)

Luis over at Inside Orkut Brasil has published some screen shots highlighting of what could be the beginning of Picasa Web Albums integrating with (or hopefully replacing) Orkut Albums.



Notice how similar these arrows look like when compared to the ones used in Picasa Web Albums.



I'm not seeing anything yet, although if this rumor is true hopefully it will be something more than a cosmetic change as Picasa Albums has a lot more function (and space) than Orkut Albums.

Note: Is anybody else seeing this?

Update (5/16): I see this in my Album right now, and Luis has informed me that Google is rolling this out to more profiles.

(Orkut Help Group) You asked for it, so we're adding a better way to flip through
somebody's photo album on orkut.

Instead of having to click on a photo, then click "back to album" to
get to the next pic, you can now just click on the arrows above the
pic to see the next or last one!

We're rolling this out a few profiles at a time, so just hold tight if
you don't see it yet.

Happy scrolling!
orkut Guide

By the looks of this, it seems as if this is nothing more than a cosmetic change. Alas, and I was looking forward to Picasa becoming one with Orkut Albums soooo much.