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Picasa Web Albums is Google's Web photo-hosting service. Users get 1GB of free hosting, and images can be uploaded and manipulated using Picasa, Google's free desktop photo management application. Users who want additional storage can shell out up to $500 a year to bump up the hosted space to 400 times the size of the free hosting service.
Much like everything else Google, Picasa is exceptionally straightforward to use, with a tabbed interface offering three options--My Photos, Favorites, and Explore--the last of which lets you browse the public photo library. Next to the tabs, you'll find a prominent Upload button for adding photos to your albums, which you can set to various levels of privacy. Within your albums, you have the option to view a slideshow, share via e-mail, make a collage or movie, order prints, and edit various aspects.
We really like the integration between the desktop and Web application. Similar to .Mac and iPhoto, Picasa makes it really simple to take photos from your desktop and publish them online for others to see. We're also fans of the built-in geotagging that lets you set where photos were taken either by single photo, or by entire albums. It's a great way to browse photos if you feel like exploring.
Picasa - Organize, edit, and share pictures - Download Video Previews:Publisher's Description
From Google:
Picasa can transfer, find, organize, edit, print, and share images, all with this easy-to-use product. Watch Picasa automatically organize all your pictures into elegant albums by date. Having all your photos in one place means no more time wasted searching for folders or files. The program works with JPEG, GIF, BMP, PSD, and movie files and is compatible with most digital cameras; it detects your USB driver and imports pictures into albums.
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All versions:
4.2 starsout of 1,549 votes
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Current version:
4.0 starsout of 8 votes
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My rating:
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Results 1-8 of 8
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"Goggle photo management is Great."
Version: Picasa 3.9.0 Build 136.19
Pros
Excellent in cataloguing and for all to see.
Cons
Editor is basic.
Summary
Excellent photo organiser.
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"Product does what it's supposed to."
Version: Picasa 3.9.0 Build 136.19
Pros
Product does what it's supposed to.
Cons
no cons to speak of yet.
Summary
Product does what it's supposed to.
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"Free and excellent - as one would expect from Google"
Version: Picasa 3.9.0 Build 136.19
Pros
User-friendly UI, fast to learn and free!
Cons
No cons at the moment
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"Not best used as a editor"
Version: Picasa 3.9.0 Build 136.19
Pros
er... it's free
Cons
Inflexible. Aggressive approach towards deletion. Over zealous photo management. Not at it's best as a stand alone editor
Summary
I was looking for a more streamlined alternative to GIMP and Photoshop but Picasa is not it. Picasa is ultimately photo management software with some editing capabilities. It is not best used as a stand alone editor. It constantly wants to catalogue and organise your photographs regardless of whether you want it to or not. Individually selecting a single file for editing that Picasa has not previously catalogued is not easy. Picasa then leaves me worried it will delete or overwrite my original without clear confirmation. I'm back to the sledge hammer to crack a nut GIMP for now.
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"Aggressive use of technology"
Version: Picasa 3.9.0 Build 136.19
Pros
Good for setting up albums, sorting, and some aspects of editing.
Cons
Very hard to delete selectively, always wants to delete all references to a file.
Summary
Reasonably good product, but being Google based, do not feel I can trust them, too many sneaky hidden applications.
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"Good product overall"
Version: Picasa 3.9.0 Build 136.19
Pros
The software loaded easily and launched immediately. It scanned my photos quickly and fairly accurately.
Cons
At times, I tried to write a name and the program did not recognize the name and tried to create a new file. It also created "unknown person" files and moving those photos to other files is not easy.
Summary
All in all, a good program with just a few quirks.
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"Picasa - One of Googles Best"
Version: Picasa 3.9.0 Build 136.19
Pros
Excellent Organizing and Editing program, Especially for FREE!!
Cons
Can't think of any
Summary
I own PhotoShop Elements 11, and LightRoom 4, as well as having Picasa. - For everyday photo editing, Picasa is 'Spot On' with many excellent features for editing photos. -
If you need to remove background clutter, (power poles or lines, etc.), then you'll need something else, like PSE11. -
"Still happy with Picasa after all these years."
Version: Picasa 3.9.0 Build 136.19
Pros
Picasa is easy and fast to use. Lots of features. The learning curve is steep.
Cons
Not a con, but still missing. It would be very helpful in crop mode to be able to overlay a picture with grids, like the very useful one of "rule of thirds".
Results 1-8 of 8
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