You can access the PicasaWeb website, but if you have G+ enabled, you won't be able to use the Picasa desktop app to add new PicasaWeb albums, it will now only upload to G+.
Free service, you get what you pay for, etc., but this odd cascading change is the kind of thing that drives my (70+) parents crazy, and they take note of the fact that it was Google that broke the thing they were comfortable using.
Picasaweb and Google+ use the same back-end. The back-end makes no distinction between albums created in Picasaweb and albums created in G+. Having an option in Picasa desktop client to control whether an album is created in Picasaweb or Google+ would be nonsensical.
I just tried creating an album in Picasa desktop client. I clicked on "Sync to web" and the album was uploaded and was available from both Picasaweb and in G+ Photos with identical functionality.
I tried creating a second album, but instead of turning on "sync to web" I clicked on the "Share your album on G+" button. I 'shared' the album with myself. The resulting album is available in either Picasaweb or G+.
Hey ... I think I already know the answers to these questions, but I thought I would ask anyway:
1) Any upgrades the Picasa Web interface planned?
2) Why when I search for tags it shows everyone's photos by default?
3) Why do tag searches not return all photos that are tagged with the term?
I think you might be confused. I was confused, too, when they first made the change, but tried it anyway. Even though it says Google + Upload it still allows you to choose your Picasa Web albums to import to. If you create a new one it is created in Picasa Web Albums.
The scary part was knowing the security settings. By default the album is set to "Only You", but you can change it "Limited, anyone with link" or "Public."
If you go into Google + it'll show you all your albums through that interface with the same security enabled.
Free service, you get what you pay for, etc., but this odd cascading change is the kind of thing that drives my (70+) parents crazy, and they take note of the fact that it was Google that broke the thing they were comfortable using.