They can easily provide the feature to download if they want to. So there is no point of the option to download.Īgain, it's not about whether they can provide the option or not. But Picasa/Youtube were built to share content.

If you want to backup your data, use online backup services like Dropbox etc. While we might use them for the backup purpose, but that is completely our point of view of the service. The only point of their service is sharing content. You'll notice that even the option to download the images are unavailable at Picasa.Īnd for the point of downloading your own data, remember that Picasa/Youtube are NOT online backup services. So the option to download the content is avoided in these kind of sharing services.

Providing the feature to download a content always has a copyright issue as they'll be giving you the complete control over that amount of data. Picasa Web Album or Youtube, both are Photo/Video Sharing Service, where the main motive is the distribution of content among viewers, which can be done without the option to download. I'm going to explain it as simply as I can. (I realize that there are some workarounds for downloading videos but they are cumbersome, they do not seem to support HD, and they are impractical to use on a large number of videos) If I understood this better, I could better judge the likelyhood of this feature beeing supported in the future.

What is the reason for the policy? Is it just technically difficult, or is there some business reason for actively disabling it? Unless there is a specific reason for this unfriendly policy. Thus, there seems to be a slim hope that downloading videos might be made possible in the future. It also seems contrary to the stated purpose of Google's own Data Liberation Front. This is very frustrating since it essentially means that it is not future-proof to use Picasa as the single storage place for videos. Strangely, Google has officially stated that It's not possible to download videos from Picasa Web Albums at this time. I am considering using Picasa Web Albums as the main storage point for all my pictures and videos.

Download google picasa