- Quick specs
- Price: Free
- Operating system: Windows XP/Vista
- Date added: December 15, 2009
- Total Downloads: 2,512,430
- Downloads last week: 9,748
- See full specifications
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 750 votes
See all user reviews -
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: Webware staff on January 29, 2010
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.
Watch the CNET video review of Picasa:
Publisher's description
From Google :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. Editing tools include cropping (standard or custom), removal of red-eye, and enhancing--even switching from color to black and white. Create slide shows set to your MP3s. Integration with Picasa's free Hello instant picture-sharing software lets you share hundreds of photos in seconds and chat in real time. E-mail photos with Picasa's built-in client to take the guesswork out of compressing images, and order photo-lab quality prints or print at home with no mistakes. You can also make instant backups to CD (or to other hard drives) of your photo collections, to organize your photos using labels and stars (just like with Gmail), to write captions for all pictures, and to organize videos as well as pictures.
What's new in this version:
Version 3.6 build 95.25 fixed an issue where Picasa would only show the face thumbnail when a new album is created from a 'People' album and made a stability fix to Timeline.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 4.2 stars out of 750 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 92 user reviewsSee all 92 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
Version: Picasa 3.6 build 95.25
Pros: easy to use, easy to share pics, can use pics as a screensaver.
Cons: people I share pics with have to create gmail account to view pics online.
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Version: Picasa 3.6 build 95.25
"A pleasure to use after Windows Live Photo Gallery."
Pros: Intuitive usage.
Fast organizer.
Scalable from basic usage to more complex.Cons: Printing was a little cluggy but the organizer over shadowed that.
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Version: Picasa 3.6 build 95.25
Pros: easy to use
Cons: There is nothing I dislike
Summary: It fills all my needs for my pictures.
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1 out of 4 people found this review helpful
Version: Picasa 3.6 build 95.25
Pros: Good for looking at pictures
Cons: Good for looking at pictures
Summary: I stand corrected it has one good use. Looking at pictures.
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Version: Picasa 3.6 build 95.25
"IMO: Better than Photoshop Elements"
Pros: Easy to use! Edit, make albums, send images to Flick'r, order prints from Shutterfly (I get mine for $.09 cents a print), send via e-mail, make collages, print your own pictures, back them up--and more.
Cons: AMAZINGLY, I don't know of a single book on this superb program, and Picasa 3 and its legion of users need--and would gladly buy one. It is baffling the Adobe has stormed the media/reading market with a slew of editions on its programs--Picasa: None
Summary: Great program, without the Photoshop snobbishness. If I had given more room above I would have elaborated.
- See all 92 user reviews Write review
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