Adios, Picnik
In January, Google announced that after acquiring photo editing suite, Picnik.com, that they would be shutting the site down. Now, Google is referring users to three locations – Google+ which is where they will roll their acquired technology into, Aviary (which AGBeat named as a viable replacement, given the announcement of their partnership with Flickr.com) and finally, PicMonkey.com.
PicMonkey is like a sexier version of Picnik with better speed, more Instagram-ish effects, a simpler, easier interface, and less hunting and pecking and guessing than we’ve grown accustomed to with Picnik. According to GeekWire’s John Cook1, the company is expecting a massive influx of users once Picnik is finally turned off this Friday and users are forced to choose an alternative, and given that PicMonkey is created by two of Picnik’s original developers, it is an obvious transitional choice.
Photo editing made of win
The company calls itself a photo editor “made of win,” and is very slick and clever in its verbiage throughout the site, especially in describing themselves. “Here’s who we are: a bunch of dedicated, in-the-trenches people who just want to make this online photo editor experience ridiculously great. We’re getting PicMonkey up and running, and then watch out. Keep your eyes peeled for more. Because we’re gonna keep adding more features and more tools and not stop until you scream and say ‘Holy Macarena, people, go home and get a life because you’ve done. it. all!'”
Cook writes that PicMonkey co-founder Justin Huff said that they were “upfront with Google about their plans when they left, and he noted that the closure is just providing extra motivation for the team which is bootstrapping the company right now.”
“When a company like Google shuts down a product, they are telling the world that they don’t believe that there is a market for that,” Huff told GeekWire. “And it just happens that some of us think different, and that’s why we are here.”
