Google Photos is making photos semi-public
This is exactly what I, and everyone else I know, wants to happen when you share a link to a photo. Do we not remember what the alternative is? Sharing with someone's Google account, I suppose? Oh, but now when you send that link to your iMessage group, you have to know every one's Google account name. And then half of them will be logged into their work accounts (or not logged in) at the time and it will fail, and the whole message thread turns into a discussion of how 3/4 of the people can't see the photo.<p>What are the easier alternatives? Emailing maybe? But then you've moved the bits into someone else's account and they are there forever and can be forwarded anywhere. Maybe print a physical copy? Then that copy is around forever and can be handed to anyone else.<p>They only extra security I would tolerate is an optional expiration, defaulted to a year or so. I love taking photos, I enjoy sharing them, and it's important to me to keep that simple and accessible. I think of these share links as bearer auth, which is used all over the web and is a perfectly valid way to secure a resource.