Easiest way for elderly parents to view family pictures online?

[George]

I used to use Photobucket to upload photos to post here but also to create online albums for my parents to view. I could send them a link to an album and they could scroll through the gallery by clicking "next" and "back" buttons on each photo, or even watch the whole album as a slideshow, I think.

I tried the same thing with postimage.org this weekend. That site works great for photo hosting for forum posts, but doesn't seem to have "next" and "back" buttons or a slideshow feature. Instead it requires a lot of "back" button clicking on the browser itself, which is kind of awkward since it requires so many clicks to view an album.

Example:

1. Open album.

2. Click on thumbnail of photo.

3. Click again to enlarge photo from "fits the window" to "actual size", if desired.

4. Now click "back" button on browser to see entire album again.

5. Repeat steps 2 through 4 for every photo in album, being careful to remember where in the list you are at all times.

Can you guys recommend any free sites that don't take so many mouse clicks and are more sequential, so they can see the pictures in order (such as with a "next" button).

Thanks.

[CudaMan]

Google Photos works well for this I think.

[Rare White Ape]

If you have a Facebook account then photo sharing is super easy. You can send them the link and they’ll be able to view it if they don’t have an account. I am pretty sure than you can even make the album private, but still share it with outsiders if they have the link; it’s worth exploring the privacy options on the website to see what’s possible.

[George]

I'm not on Facebook, but I appreciate the suggestion RWA.

Question about Google Photos: this page (https://www.google.com/photos/about/) says "Your photos are organized and searchable by the places and things in them – no tagging required. Just search "dog" to find all the photos of your pup."

Is that just for me to search if I create an account there, or can the whole world wide web search my pictures?

Example - if I posted a picture of my kids ice skating, could they show up in a Google search to the rest of the world if someone searched ice skating?

Not a huge deal either way, but just curious. I have found my own pictures from Photobucket on Google before and it seemed a bit creepy. I'm guessing if anyone is going to make things searchable on Google, it would be Google.

[Yw-slayer]

I think by default it only shares photos with people who have the link, and won't include them in worldwide Google Searches. It would be unacceptable if it did otherwise. The searching is just for you or, I think, anyone else who has the link.

[dodint]

Yeah. It will stay private unless you make the album public.

[CudaMan]

Right. You have control over who has access to your photos/albums. You can even have a collaborative album with multiple contributors.

[George]

Thanks gents. Your advice is much appreciated. I'll give it a try.

[SportWagon]

I'm not on Facebook, but I appreciate the suggestion RWA.

Your parents are probably on Facebook unless you strongly dissuaded them from joining. To many people, Facebook is the Internet, at least for personal communication.

But it sounds like you worked out non-Facebook solutions.

(Oh yes, you ran into a peculiar case of "Google's search results are not the same for everyone")

[George]

Yes, they're on Facebook. Dad has an account. I don't think he/they post much, if at all, but they use it to see posts from family and friends. I'm pretty much the only one in the extended family who is not on FB, but I get all the gossip from my parents and my wife, so I don't need to be.

You guys will get a kick out of this: I had to get an iPhone for work in 2017, and there is still so much I don't know that it can do. I have been hooking it up to my PC at home to download photos to the C: drive and then uploading them to send to my parents. That's how I always did it with my digital cameras.

I just learned that I can take a picture and then email it directly from my cell phone to them.

While that might be too much of a chore when I have a month's worth of photos to send, it is convenient to send them a quick "hey, look at this!" picture once in a while.

I do not try to be behind in technology. I really don't. But after jumping ahead ten years of technology all at once, I'm learning there are things that the iPhone can do (and other people regularly use them for) that I don't even consider as being possible.

[CudaMan]

Slightly off topic, but your post reminded me of something. You might get a kick out of it. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo0KjdDJr1c

[George]

That is great. :up:

I'm a little younger than that guy (I hope!) but sometimes have similar "what?!" moments with millennials at work. To be fair, though, I learn a lot from the 27-year-old that I spend most of my working time with.

I guess it was the same when I started working. There were still WWII vets in the workforce then, but I don't remember such a huge "technology gap" as we have today.

[Kchrpm]

Related: I have wanted to get various family members internet-connected photo frames for years so that they could always have the latest photos of far flung relatives. Now Google and Amazon sort of have versions of that, and they include voice control so you can ask for specific pictures. I'd want to play with one before getting for anyone, though, since I'd have to be the remote IT guy for them.

[George]

Internet-connected photo frames? :eek:

Wow, that's an interesting idea. I have seen photo frames that you could load pictures into via USB, so I guess internet-connected is the next step.

Imagine the possibilities if you gave one to a friend or co-worker and kept the user name and password to control what appears on it.

[George]

...after jumping ahead ten years of technology all at once, I'm learning there are things that the iPhone can do (and other people regularly use them for) that I don't even consider as being possible.

My cluelessness about the iPhone doesn't deserve a thread of its own, so I'll just ponder this here:

Why can my iPhone tell me the temperature anywhere in the world, but can't tell me the temperature in this office where I shiver all day under multiple layers of clothing?

[CudaMan]

It's equipped not with an ambient air temperature sensor, but with the internet? :assclown:

[Rare White Ape]

It's equipped not with an ambient air temperature sensor, but with the internet? :assclown:

That’d be why. I’ve pondered the inclusion of temp sensors in phones before, as many dedicated handheld devices can act as reliable weather stations in the field. But I came to the conclusion that not only would an ambient temp sensor in a phone be inaccurate due to heat from internal processors and battery use, it would also be harder and more expensive to implement than simply including a weather app.