January 23, 2012

Google Picnik Closing – The Ants Are On The Move

Well shucks – I’m not a happy camper. Picnik is closing on the 19th April this year and all I can say (in a whiny voice) is ‘thanks a lot Google. Don’t you realize that Picnik’s Photoshop for Dummies?!’.

To say I’m pretty gutted is an understatement. I’ve used the online picture editing software for over 3 years now, and honestly can’t fault the usability or the range of features that it offers to the likes of me – the edit-images-with photoshop challenged.

I’ve never minded the annual subscription, if anything I thought it worth every penny, so when I went to the site over the weekend I was more than a little dismayed when I was met with the ‘sorry we’re closing’ message. That and the ambiguous reasoning behind the closure. Hey Google … some of us love the program and don’t mind paying for it, ya know?

Now me and others that love Picnik are left scratching our heads as to ‘what now … where’s home gonna be??’. Is there an answer, is there something else out there for us? Worry ye not (at least don’t panic just yet) for Google, in all it’s greatness, has decided to (sneakily?) integrate some of the more popular features found in Picnik into what’s known as the ‘creative kit’ on Google + … which has got to be better than nothing!

Kind of. You get about 25% ish. I’m not the math wiz I wish I was but, having had a good look around, I reckon that 25% is a good guestimate. So – what’s there (or rather … what’s left)? Well, if you’re familiar with Picnik photo editing, the Creative Kit offers (pretty much) the following well-love features:

25 image effects features (including 4 from the touch-up set)
20 decorate features
the same basic edits – crop, auto-correct, sharpen etc
almost all of the fonts in text

And that’s it. It sucks. There are some aspects of the software that were, in a word, awesome. I love some of the Touch-up features, such as the teeth-whitening, not to mention the sticker collection. *sighs * … oh well. It appears (to me) that Google are cleaning house: rebranding, regrouping, reducing their stable.

As of the last year or so, Google have brought an end to:

Labs
Buzz
Knol
Gears
Health
to name a few
to be added to …

In truth I can understand what’s going on at Google Inc. Cloud computing is breaking fast ground and anyone that’s online (and knows what the virtual world is all about) recognizes exactly where we’re heading. Online apps, such as those already given the push, just don’t fit into the cloud computing mold. And, if it’s any compensation, the likes of me and you (as in anyone that’s paid for the premium service) are in for a full refund.

Honestly? I’d rather Google kept it and Picnik closing was little more than internet buzz. Oh well … if, as Camp Google are telling us, they follow through then more of the features will be transported over to the Creative Kit by the time Picnik officially closes down.

Sniff …