4 ms·

> The honest approach would be to either grandfather existing customers at the promised price point ($0)… This is exactly what they're doing. According to the

> The honest approach would be to either grandfather existing customers at the promised price point ($0)… This is exactly what they're doing. According to the announcement, photos uploaded in "high quality" (the previous free/unmetered tier) before June 1, 2021 will remain exempt from the storage quota. Only new photos uploaded after June 1, 2021 count against the quota. So not only are all the existing photos and videos grandfathered in, you even have seven whole months after the change was announced to upload new material which will also be grandfathered in. Google is also very good about data migration; you can download all your photos and videos along with a wealth of other account data in reasonably open formats via Google Takeout and migrate it wherever you wish.

dontfiremepls 6y ago
We are going to lawyer this, aren't we? The service was promised for free, not per photo storage. The expectation is that the service will continue to be free. From what you're saying, (most of) the future use of the service, which consists of uploading and storing new photos, will be charged. Velvet gloves dumping.
- nybble41 6y ago
  > The service was promised for free… Please point out exactly where Google, or any of their competitors, ever promised that any of their free services would remain available—much less free—forever. Anyone who expected that was kidding themselves, especially given the history of high-profile services being shut down or significantly redesigned on a regular basis.
  - dredmorbius 6y ago
    Launch announcement: They’re pitching it as having “unlimited storage”.... Yep! We were right. Google Photos will launch today, for free. https://techcrunch.com/2015/05/28/confirmed-google-will-launch-google-photos-a-standalone-photo-host-with-unlimited-storage/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/05/28/confirmed-google-will-laun... HN discussion at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9618965 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9618965 Highlight comment: Right now, I have more faith in a specialist small company (e.g. Smugmug [disclaimer, no affiliation]) which charges for their product than Google who offer it for free ... and then, not ... and then ... repackaged ... and then ... RIP. -- XJOKOLAT https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9619340 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9619340
    - nybble41 6y ago
      The "unlimited storage" in the pitch was obviously referring to uploaded photos not being counted against your storage quota, not a guarantee that this arrangement would continue indefinitely.
      - dredmorbius 6y ago
        Techcruch, arguably an entity with some experience and credibility in assessing product and service offerings, noted both "unlimited" and "free" in describing Google Photos. Which might be considered a presumptive public expectaction.
        nybble41 6y ago
        Techcrunch never claimed what you are claiming. Yes, at launch the service was both unlimited (in storage capacity—not duration) and free. They never said that state of affairs would last forever, and it would have been unreasonable for anyone to assume that it would.
- andromeduck 6y ago
  So if someone gives you a free beer for a the foreseeable future they also owe you free beer for life? What kind of entitlement is this?!
  - rmah 6y ago
    There is a certain segment of the population that believes exactly that. And they tend to get offended when you point out that it's unreasonable.
  - usrusr 6y ago
    What if he only stops giving you free beer after all other breweries have closed shop?
    - virgilp 6y ago
      But there are plenty of other breweries! Adobe hasn't closed shop, neither has Microsoft (OneDrive), Dropbox, iDrive, pCloud, or for that matter SmugMug, Flickr etc.
  - TheCoelacanth 6y ago
    If they are trying to drive competitors out of business to form an illegal monopoly, then yes.
  - nomad543 6y ago
    If someone gives people free beer while driving out competitors or preventing potential competitors form starting a business, then it's dumping. No company should be entitled to decimate competition using dirty strategies.
    - andromeduck 6y ago
      1. Loss leading is not dumping. 2. Plenty of competitors in the storage space are still thriving including Dropbox, Box, Microsoft OneDrive, Backblaze, Amazon Drive, Apple iCloud, etc. 3. There's even more more competition on the photo sharing side of things like Instagram, Flickr, SmugMug, 500px, imgur, imageshack, Facebook, 1x, photoblog, etc. 4. Photos isn't even the largest service nor Google the most influential player in either sector.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
toiletfuneral 6y ago
but they definitely KEEP copies of all your photos after you leave, that didn't feel great to me
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
hinkley 6y ago
That is not 'exactly' what they're doing. It's loosely what they're doing. Being grandfathered into a service means you get to keep using it the way you did, full stop. This service is about uploading and downloading files. All they're preserving is the ability to download them, not upload.
- csallen 6y ago
  Expecting them to not only exempt you from paying for your previously uploaded photos, but to also allow you to continue to upload photos for free indefinitely seems unreasonable to me. That's not what I'd expect from being grandfathered in.

dontfiremepls 6y ago

We are going to lawyer this, aren't we? The service was promised for free, not per photo storage. The expectation is that the service will continue to be free. From what you're saying, (most of) the future use of the service, which consists of uploading and storing new photos, will be charged. Velvet gloves dumping.

nybble41 6y ago
> The service was promised for free… Please point out exactly where Google, or any of their competitors, ever promised that any of their free services would remain available—much less free—forever. Anyone who expected that was kidding themselves, especially given the history of high-profile services being shut down or significantly redesigned on a regular basis.
- dredmorbius 6y ago
  Launch announcement: They’re pitching it as having “unlimited storage”.... Yep! We were right. Google Photos will launch today, for free. https://techcrunch.com/2015/05/28/confirmed-google-will-launch-google-photos-a-standalone-photo-host-with-unlimited-storage/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/05/28/confirmed-google-will-laun... HN discussion at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9618965 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9618965 Highlight comment: Right now, I have more faith in a specialist small company (e.g. Smugmug [disclaimer, no affiliation]) which charges for their product than Google who offer it for free ... and then, not ... and then ... repackaged ... and then ... RIP. -- XJOKOLAT https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9619340 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9619340
  - nybble41 6y ago
    The "unlimited storage" in the pitch was obviously referring to uploaded photos not being counted against your storage quota, not a guarantee that this arrangement would continue indefinitely.
    - dredmorbius 6y ago
      Techcruch, arguably an entity with some experience and credibility in assessing product and service offerings, noted both "unlimited" and "free" in describing Google Photos. Which might be considered a presumptive public expectaction.
      - nybble41 6y ago
        Techcrunch never claimed what you are claiming. Yes, at launch the service was both unlimited (in storage capacity—not duration) and free. They never said that state of affairs would last forever, and it would have been unreasonable for anyone to assume that it would.
andromeduck 6y ago
So if someone gives you a free beer for a the foreseeable future they also owe you free beer for life? What kind of entitlement is this?!
- rmah 6y ago
  There is a certain segment of the population that believes exactly that. And they tend to get offended when you point out that it's unreasonable.
- usrusr 6y ago
  What if he only stops giving you free beer after all other breweries have closed shop?
  - virgilp 6y ago
    But there are plenty of other breweries! Adobe hasn't closed shop, neither has Microsoft (OneDrive), Dropbox, iDrive, pCloud, or for that matter SmugMug, Flickr etc.
- TheCoelacanth 6y ago
  If they are trying to drive competitors out of business to form an illegal monopoly, then yes.
- nomad543 6y ago
  If someone gives people free beer while driving out competitors or preventing potential competitors form starting a business, then it's dumping. No company should be entitled to decimate competition using dirty strategies.
  - andromeduck 6y ago
    1. Loss leading is not dumping. 2. Plenty of competitors in the storage space are still thriving including Dropbox, Box, Microsoft OneDrive, Backblaze, Amazon Drive, Apple iCloud, etc. 3. There's even more more competition on the photo sharing side of things like Instagram, Flickr, SmugMug, 500px, imgur, imageshack, Facebook, 1x, photoblog, etc. 4. Photos isn't even the largest service nor Google the most influential player in either sector.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

toiletfuneral 6y ago

but they definitely KEEP copies of all your photos after you leave, that didn't feel great to me

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

hinkley 6y ago

That is not 'exactly' what they're doing. It's loosely what they're doing. Being grandfathered into a service means you get to keep using it the way you did, full stop. This service is about uploading and downloading files. All they're preserving is the ability to download them, not upload.

csallen 6y ago
Expecting them to not only exempt you from paying for your previously uploaded photos, but to also allow you to continue to upload photos for free indefinitely seems unreasonable to me. That's not what I'd expect from being grandfathered in.