Batch exporting photos from Facebook for use in Picasa and/or Google+ : a practical guide

So, you have photos in Facebook and you want to move your images to Google’s new social platform,  Google+ (note: if you are a Chrome user, you may just want to use Move2Picasa, an addon which will streamline transfer from Facebook to Google+ for photos). 

Or maybe you are tired of using Facebook and want to move your photos from Facebook  to something else. Or maybe you lost all of your images and Facebook has your only copy (I hope not, but it could happen). This practical guide will take you through the painless process of getting your photos from Facebook and then uploading them to Google’s Picasa, which as a side benefit puts them directly where they need to be for Google+. Yes, painless. You will be amazed at how easy this is to do. So let’s get started, shall we?

You can also use this batch download process to get images for Flickr, too (but then you'd need to use of course, use Flickr, to get your images into Flickr!)

Getting your Images from Facebook: the Batch Process

• First you have to get your images from Facebook. You can not just batch download your images; it is all or nothing.
• In Facebook>Account>Account Settings>Download Your Information
• Once you are there, click on Download (once you download your information it will change to Learn More).

 

• Need more help? Check out my step by step process for downloading content from Facebook. Basically, it will take a while for Facebook to collect up your data. You will receive an email with a link to get your download. Facebook will email whichever email account is linked to your Facebook to let you know your data is ready.
• Your data will be downloaded into a ZIP file, a compressed folder format. If you do not have a ZIP file reader, you can download a free one called 7ZIP , http://www.7-zip.org/
• I recommend making a new folder on your computer to stick all of your Facebook data.  It may be a lot of folders if you have a lot of albums.  
• Once you unzip your Facebook data folder, you will see that your photos are in the "photos"  folder .
• For each album you have created, there will be a subfolder in the “photos” folder. 

 
 

In the html folder you will find all of your wall posts chronological as a HTML file. If you want to import those into a blog, you will need to convert it to xml (try Tidy which is free). I'm not sure why anyone would want to convert a facebook wall to a blog, but it's doable.

Importing videos from Youtube works somewhat similarly to the web-based upload at Picasa Web (Method 2).

Method 1: Use Desktop installation of Picasa (easiest)

Once you get your photos, you will go to Picasa.

Using the desktop installation (free) is easiest as it has a Batch Upload feature.

In your Picasa Desktop>Library

Tools>Batch Import

Sign into your Google/Picasa Account.

You should THEN see the batchuploader. You should see your Facebook photo albums listed under Folders, if you do not you many need to rescan or import them to a different folder.

Click on the album you want to upload and set its permission (to choose multiple albums, click the box next to the each album name that you want to upload) . You can upload more than 1 album at a time, but they will all have the same permissions (in other words, you can't choose different permissions for different folders within a single batch upload). You will receive a message indicating which permissions you have chosen.

Method 2: Picasa Web Albums (http:// picasaweb.google.com)

If you haven't dowloaded Picasa you can upload directly to your Picasa Web Albums.

Go to Upload> Create a new album (or use an existing one).

At that point you will select all of the images within the folder you want to upload  (Control + A > Open) to start the upload process.

After Uploading:

Once your photos are uploaded to Picasa, you can either link to them through the Picasa Web Albums or you can Share them to your circles (network) via Google+. For each album, click on share to publish it to your circle. This will also allow tagging of photos, too.

If you've recently joined Google+ you will see this message:

 Make sure to go in to your Picasa Web Albums and Google+ Photos to see what tweaks might be needed (especially in terms of privacy).

There are other ways to get data from Facebook (Backupify is one option) and batch import into Picasa ( including writing your own scripts) but this is one solution available which is rather easy to do.

Question of the day: What is Google+?

For those who haven't heard about it, Google+ allows you to group networks and contacts in visual circles (and share information similarly to Facebook). Google + is kind of just added functionality to your Google account and if you are already have a Google account, more than likely it will be rolled out to you eventually (following the pattern of implementation for Buzz and Wave).


There is a safari extension for G+
http://google-plus-network.blogspot.com/2011/07/safari-extension-for-google.html so it seem that it does; although I didn't see anything specifically in  G+ help about safari.

Question of the day: Wordpress resources

Okay, so there a bazillion WP resources out there (and feel free to add yours and I'll update the list), but here are a few I find useful:
n your own server WP (e.g. wordpress.org)
For inspiration: http://welovewp.com/
For simple howtos and tutorials: http://www.siteground.com/​tutorials/wordpress/
For a book: http://www.amazon.com/Word​Press-24-Hour-Trainer-Crea​te-Customize/dp/0470554584
For the official forums and way to ask for help: wordpress.org

Google tip of the day (privacy settings)

If you're a Google user (any of their products) don't forget that you can review and change your settings for all services you use via the Dashboard. I always forget just how handy the Dashboard is for updating settings across the Googlesphere.

https://www.google.com/dashboard/

..and don't forget you can turn of search history which directly ties your account to your searching.

Google+ : thoughts on Google's new social effort

So, I've been playing a bit with Google+ the new social media site from you know who. (Clicking on images will show you the full size, btw...)
Is it a Facebook Killer?


At this point, I'd say no for a variety of reasons:

• There is no page functionality. Alot of us (including me) use pages to network and share without having to have a personal connection (the argument for Google+ would be that you could just create a separate group for those people).
• There is no EASY way to get content out of Facebook into Google+. You can download your information from Facebook (here's how to do it); for photos, you can then batch upload to Picasa (here's how to do that) and then you can share with your circles (networks in Google+). Video is going to be a little more manual process (select multiple files to upload) Kind of alot of work, no? 
• You can't tweet from within Google+ Circles. OR at least I couldn't find a way to do it. I want to be able to share within my circle and with my Twitter network (which is much more robust at this time).
• Games? Seriously. Where's my scrabble?
• The profile is kind of limited in terms of types of information and organization. If I want to network professionally, I would much rather use LinkedIn.
• Sparks (interest groups?) didn't work the way I thought. I would like to see recommended circles or be able to start a public open circle, e.g., an art circle.
• Needs more customization overall. In my stream, I couldn't find a way to customize which circles I see (although I can choose to see any stream). I also would like to know what circles other people put me in (like being able to see a twitter list).
• So, no, not yet.

Here is what google has to say about their new project

I do like the idea of data liberation and the circles are a nifty visual way to see your network (or lists or groups or whatever you want to call them).