Weekend read: Why a lack of photography killed Google+

It’s not as if Google+ is dead, but you log on there and it seems like it is. Here’s one idea of why:

The internet is not a place of fierce loyalty. Create a transformational product or build a better service and people will use it. Thus Hotmail gave way to Gmail, and MySpace to Facebook. So you can understand why Google thought it could build a better social network in Google+. But that’s not what happened. Or at least, it wasn’t able to build a more popular social network. But why not?

The answer to the question of why Google+ failed is simple. It’s the reason why any social network succeeds or fails. The answer is photos. Google+ now has one of the best photo management tools there is, period. It finds your best pictures for you, it’s amazingly searchable, it auto-generates highlight films and cool photos albums, and it even turns your burst shots into animated GIFs. Fancy! But all of that came far too late in its history. The big mistake Google+ made was in starting out as a place for people to have meaty in-depth discussions.

Why Photos Rule The Internet – Charlie Warzel, BuzzFeed (19 March 2015)

It could be true. I’m not convinced because actually I like a meaty read and I’ve never had that from Google+. Still, read the full piece and see where he’s going with all this.

The only type of update you’re going to see about Aperture

Posted by William Gallagher

It’s a weird one, isn’t it? Apple’s pulled big applications before – it ditched Final Cut Pro in favour of what was initially a much reduced Final Cut Pro X – but the death of its photo software Aperture is odd. Apple didn’t announce this death, they just rather let it be known.

And now they’ve just rather let a little more be known. Apple has given Ars Technica an update about what will happen next. We know that Aperture and iPhoto are dead, that they will both be replaced by a new application called Photos in OS X Yosemite. And we gathered that Photos would not be a professional tool the way Aperture was. But:

Update: When asked about what Aperture-like features users can expect from the new Photos app, an Apple representative mentioned plans for professional-grade features such as image search, editing, effects, and most notably, third-party extensibility. The representative also clarified the timeframe when Aperture development will end, along with an announcement about its other Pro app offerings receiving updates today.

Apple to cease development, support of pro photo app Aperture [Updated] – Sam Machkovech, Ars Technica (original story 27 June, update 2 July 2014)

If I liked Lightroom more, maybe I’d swap to it. But this makes me think that it will be worth hanging on to see what Photos is like. Afterall, just because Apple won’t update Aperture, that doesn’t mean the copy I’ve got will stop working today.

Looks like I chose the wrong one: Apple kills Aperture

Posted by William Gallagher

So Apple brings out this Aperture software and at first everyone thinks it’s the consumer iPhoto or it’s a Photoshop knockoff. They think it’s too complicated to successfully be the former and too rubbish to be the later. But Adobe launches Lightroom and now with two big applications in the same area, that area becomes a market.

For some years now, if you were a professional photographer or you just fancied being one (hello) then you either bought Aperture or Lightroom for the managing of your photos.

Not any more.

As of now, Aperture is dead.

With the introduction of the new Photos app and iCloud Photo Library, enabling you to safely store all of your photos in iCloud and access them from anywhere, there will be no new development of Aperture.

When Photos for OS X ships next year, users will be able to migrate their existing Aperture libraries to Photos for OS.

That’s Apple’s official announcement. The company is also helping people move to Lightroom.

But I like Aperture. I can carry on using it but it won’t be developed further and it’s true that Lightroom has more and better features. But Aperture was a bionic iPhoto to me and I liked it. So I’m not happy at Apple’s decision.

But them’s the breaks. You invest in a piece of software – both literally and, I think more importantly, in time and effort – and the software goes away.

It’s hard.