The biggest downside so far is that Google is promoting its desktop client instead of focusing on the webified upload client – I didn’t even realize there was a web upload too at first as Google simply offers Picasa for download. Another feature is that you can order prints from photos through providers such as Kodak or Walmart. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed (it might be coincidental but it seems Google is slowly moving away from the Atom feed format they heavily pushed some years ago). You can open up slide shows, move pics to other albums, add or delete pics, add image captions, or user comments, and flag inappropriate content. All you see is a gray-in-gray design with the must-have links to the side. let’s see if Google develops something in this direction. What I especially like with competitors such as Flickr is the ability to search for Creative Commons free-to-share content only. Just as with Google’s last release, Google Spreadsheets, it’s interesting to note Google forgot to add a search box – interesting to note for a company that puts such emphasis on search, anyway.

An album is basically a group of images, with its own cover, title, description, information on the place the photos were taken, and the private vs public setting.

The URL of my first Picasa album is now /philipp.lenssen/55WaysToHaveFunWithGoogle (too long for my taste). The available free storage is 250 MB, which isn’t quite what we’re expected from the likes of Gmail, but not too bad either.Īfter the upload (you need to sign in to your Google Account, and then add some meta info to your selected pics), you can view your album online*. The biggest news however is that you can now upload specific images to your “Picasa Web Album” to make them either public or private. You can then browse through your PC’s images in a very good-looking, smooth interface, zoom into pictures, add descriptions, search and so on. To use Picasa Web Albums, you also need a Google Account and an invitation to the service.Īfter the Picasa setup – which again includes a default setting that would make Google the Internet Explorer search engine – the program will scan your computer for images.

Even without a download, you can upload photos from the website, though. Google calls Web Albums “a super easy way to get photos off your computer and share them on the web,” but the first hurdle is that you are made to download a desktop client – it’s only 4.6 MB, but it’s still the wrong approach this day and age. Google’s Picasa Web Albums program is live now (instead of a Beta or Labs product, they’re calling this a “Test”) after a link to this was spotted recently. Wednesday, JGoogle Picasa Web Albums Live

Picasa web