Not my original idea, but I’ve heard it being done on several tech podcasts that I like to listen to. I first heard it from Gastronomad writer and photographer Mike Elgan, and found it to be a fascinating idea.

Mike, like many others, was completely fed up with the likes of Facebook and began closing such accounts. Most of his frustration came not only out of privacy concerns, but the sheer level of toxic conversations and bullying – mainly those of political nature. But Mike wanted to have a way to still share his photography in a way that was a bit more toned-down and which still allowed people to comment, if they so choose, and to interact with him as well. Like a lot of other photographers I’ve heard discuss this, he was actually disappointed with the demise of Google +,  because it was a perfect platform for this type of engagement without the image compression used by the likes of Facebook.

As it turns out, Mike discovered, Google Photos is a great alternative! With it’s unlimited storage, and original image storage capability, Photos also allows you to create Shared Albums which can be shared to individual users or publicly via a created link. And, not only can people view the photos, they can also comment and Mike can respond. Mike playfully titled his “Nicebook”.

So I thought I’d create one of my own, just to see how it goes. I already use Google Drive link sharing extensively (especially for my podcast), and share Photos albums with family. But I thought I’d give the public-facing option a try just to see how it goes!

As such, I’ve created For All

There are only a few recent photos there now, and I’ll continue to add more as time goes on.