Again. Well, the blog is fully back. Old users have been transitioned over, as have the old posts and comments. Well, with the exception of 4 very old posts that I will need to manually convert. It shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Over time I’ll be going back to the old entries and adding tags.
There is one remaining glitch in the setup that I’m working on. Even though you can put tags (with the Ultimate Tag Warrior Plugin) on “Pages” (the static content wordpress provides), the tag summary links don’t display pages in their search results.
It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged. A very long time. I’m looking forward to getting back in the saddle so to speak.
We’ve also transitioned our photos over to picasaweb, powered by google. Why move to picasaweb over flickr you ask? There are several reasons.
First and foremost, the way flickr is setup, it’s way too easy to just click around and wind up on a page with what I find to be inappropriate content. Picasaweb albums only link your album with your friends albums, there’s no browsing around and looking at everybody’s albums. Some may think that’s a weakness, but for me, that is a strength.
Secondly, flickr is now owned by yahoo!, and I really don’t like yahoo. Let’s just say their email, groups, and sites leave much to be desired, and are way overstuffed with spam and ads. Big interstitial ads, pages cluttered with graphical ads, etc. Google is way less obtrusive, and the email is a lot less spammy. In order to add a new user, you have to sign up for a yahoo! account, so if I want family members to sign up so I can add them to friends and family, I have to get them to sign up for a yahoo! account, which I’d rather not do. Plus I use a host of other google services, so it just seemed like a natural fit.
Third, is the software. The iPhoto export for picasaweb is free. The iPhoto export for flickr is commercial, third-party. The official mac flickr software is non-universal and hasn’t been updated for some time. Lastly, picasaweb now supports uploading personal videos much like google video, except more private. Granted, there’s no support in the mac software for doing so yet, but I sure it’ll be coming down the pike, either in an upgrade to the stand-alone updater, or in a port of picasa itself.
Fourth and finally is the terminology. Picasaweb has albums and RSS feeds. flickr has photosets and photostreams. For newbie, almost luddite family members, picasaweb not only provides the “safer” experience, it provides the most natural one as well.
