Guessing you mean;

Google One "Compresses" them to degrade the image quality. - This is similar to MP3 compression & the loss of Quality of Signal/Sound for doing so.
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Yep. Jpeg compression.

You can get away with compression in a lot of audio far more than images and video where compression causes instant noise and halo fringing adding big differences in contrast. It also knocks down the greyscale levels, meaning the contrast is reduced, causing slightly more washed out images and less blacks.

The problem is many consumers now view images and watch videos almost exclusely on mobile phones, tablets and modern TVs which mostly now have higher contrast screens that boost colours and contrast, so most don't really notice these degradations. But it instantly becomes apparent if you then try to print them.

For me image compression is quite noticeable as I've worked with image editing for a very long time. But for most they just don't notice it. Similar to audiophiles who can instantly hear a digitally compressing and clipped audio file over an uncompressed version.
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There's certainly a trade off between quality and convenience.

Personally, as most of my photos are quick phone-snapshots of events, I accept the loss of quality. I do like that Google Photos backs up automatically, so if something happens to my phone I won't lose all the pics. I also love the automatic things it does like making collages, memories (this day 5 years ago, or the holiday to X, now-and-then flashbacks). It's a very quick type of photo 'consumption' though, so it's very modern and in some ways a little superficial - but then again, how often do I pull out the old-fashioned photoalbums of physical prints? Not often.
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True. We make photobooks of holidays or special events. We also used to make a yearly calendar with pictures of Tom for the Grandparents, but each month now would just be him playing a video game or at his computer.
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Ah, we've been meaning to do stuff like that but never get round to it and then, the moment and the desire has passed.

My sister in law is quite diligent at doing photobooks, when we do a big trip back the UK she makes one for us. It's nice, but how often do we look at them, not all that often really. She also has a tendencey to try and cram as many photos in as possible be they good or not so good, whereas I'd rather just have a smaller number of brilliant photos.
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I say kill a few more trees, add some chemicals to the paper for a Glossy finish, print their Asses clean off from squeezed Chameleon juice & then throw them into a plastic Photo Album from China that looks like a 100 year old piece of Leather!
These antiquated Chinese Photo Albums are a fraction of the price of BHS, Cavendish House and M&S ones, so you can afford even more squeezed Chameleon juice on Glossy chemical impregnated paper & sod the trees that give us Oxygen to breathe! - Job done!

Then at Christmas time or when the Outlaws pop round, you can paw over the glossy prints protected by fuzzy plastic sheets whilst drinking tea & scoffing shitty dry "Rich Tea" biscuits that make you cough your nuts up if they go down the wrong hole....

You just can't beat old School.

PS - The real skill here is flipping the fuzzy plastic sheet back over the glossy prints before the coughed up Rich Tea biscuit hits the glossy prints!
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I detect some pessimistic sarcasm there Charlie. That's not like you!

Paper these days in the west at least is made from sustainable pine forests so no real destruction of natural trees. And they are now utilising bamboo more now which is super fast growing for paper.

We don't use the old fashioned photo albums. We make photo books online and then get the books printed and shipped. These are great for things like weddings and big holidays. Are we have some great memories of when Tom was young. Best pictures of the year in one of these books with the year printed on the spine. And we do look through them fairly often. One from a holiday in New York in 2006 is great because it was the biggest snow blizzard they had in decades the day after we arrived so there are some amazing photos in there of Everingham covered in 3 foot of snow.

Plus we get canvas prints done for the best photos to go on the wall. I took a couple of really nice photos of Tom when he was really young that look great.

Problem now with everything being 100% digital is we are losing memories. We never looked though photos much but they were there to reminisce when we did. Many houses now sunny have any ohotos on display. That's a bit sad. As a photographer I want to see more large scale epic canvas prints on walls showing the best moments of people's lives.
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Not in the slightest Dave!

Always the optimist this side of the fence!

Digital Photo Storage can hold a huge pile of unnecessary data that isn't required for stunning 4K Quality. When you're hitting 100Mb+ for a RAW data image, that's some serious stuff.
But if your using a powerful Telescope taking pictures of specific areas of the Andromeda Galaxy, you need hundreds/thousands of shots whilst tracking as the Earth rotates to achieve stunning results. - Look up Jon Chard on Facebook to see what I mean. - I can't link anyone because I'm not on Facebook.

I don't do Social Media.
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Large photos do take up a lot of space, especially when you also store a RAW file with the Jpeg. Higher end smartphones offer that ability that days but I bet hardly anyone actually knows what they are and how to use them. I've been utilising RAW files for a very long time. Photoshop added built in support about 10 or so years ago. They are great files as you are not restricted by the limited contrast, light balance, saturation etc as they are the camera sensor's raw data, whereas every image you normally see on a phone or camera has alteady been processed and filtered by the onboard processing.

And yeah, those deep space radio telescope require a huge volume of storage. That single image released recently showing one area of the sky in great detail used Petabytes of data. I can't imagine the setup needed to actually process that data and create the final image. You couldn't load it in any home system. It would need a server farm.
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Not quite Dave....

https://astrobackyard.com/best-astro...hy-telescopes/

The telescope has to be locked on to the North Star & then be capable of tracking to compensate for the rotation of Earth through GPS. This then allows a High Resolution & Quality Camera to take snapshots of the same relative spot in Space from our planet.
All the captured Images are then run through Lightroom & exposed to each colour of the see-able spectrum to build up the finished picture. Hours upon hours of work using high End PC's provide satisfactory results. - It's a dedication most folk couldn't begin to appreciate.

If you use Facebook, I do recommend you look up Jon Chard and see some of the fantastic Photos he's captured. Particular areas within the Andromeda Galaxy are just mind blowing & if that doesn't float your boat, some of his photos of our own Milky Way Galaxy are equally as stunning. Looking up at a night sky from the New Forrest in Holbury (Near Southampton) shows a clear band of stars that make up the disc of the Milky Way Galaxy we are a part of. - Just Phenomenal!

Equally, his wildlife shots & family shots of two beautiful daughters are just as breath taking in their own rights.
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