I just do what Google tells me.

Hello again, friends. Guess what? Google has once again influenced me to sign up for yet another service. It's Picasa, a web-based photo album. There's also Picasa for your desktop, but I don't really need that at the moment.

So, I'm of course using Gmail, but also GoogleTalk, GoogleEarth, GoogleNotebook, GoogleSpreadsheets, Blogger, Picasa, and next I want to set up a wishlist on Froogle and create some 3D models for GoogleEarth with SketchUp.

What this means is that I need my friends to post a comment here or email me if you give me permission to put photos I have of you in my Picasa album.

To break it down: My photo albums will not be publicly listed or searchable on Google (or any other search engine), but the link will be posted on my blog here so that anyone who comes here can view all the images. Basically, I'm trying to keep the riffraff out as much as possible but still share my photos with friends.

If you do not comment or email me with your permission, I will not put any photos of you in my albums. So, don't say I don't like you because there's no pics of you!!! It's your own fault! There isn't a lot there yet, so I'm not linking to it until I get some worthwhile photos in there (like, say, when it looks like I have more than 2 friends). I will let you know and post the link permanently on my links menu when it's ready.

Speaking of willingly being controlled by Google, I finally switched one of my best friends to the Google side. For clarification, there are two sides: Google vs. Everything Else. Phase 2 of Operation: Turn My Friends Into Geeks Like Me is underway.