- Picasa is a freeware application that you can use to edit and organize digital photos, both on your computer and online. It is offered as a free piece of software by Google, so anyone with a Google account can access the application through the Internet. Picasa is available for the Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Linux operating systems; an older version of the program can be run on Windows Me and Windows 98, and a beta version is available for Macs.
- Picasa was created in 2002 by Idealab. The product was acquired by Google Labs in 2004 and was released as a free download. In 2006 Google acquired Neven Vision, a company that developed recognition technology for features within photos. Google used these technologies to develop a "face recognition" feature for Picasa which was released in 2008; Picasa groups together faces that look similar, then lets the user apply tags.
- Picasa contains several photo editing tools, such as cropping, color adjustment and highlighting. There are also effect filters like sepia-toned and soft-focus filters and portrait photos, red-eye correction and blemish removal are available. You can add captions directly to photos as well. You can also cut and rate digital videos using a basic video editing tool. A collage feature lets users combine music, photos, and video into one "movie."
- Picasa also allows you to upload pictures onto its website and create web albums for viewing; users can make their albums public or limit viewing. The Picasa service is now synchronized between users' computers and their web albums, meaning that edits made to photos will automatically appear in web albums without the need to upload the photo again. Features like geo-tags and direct publishing to blogs are also available. Picasa users receive 1 GB of storage space when they sign up for the service; additional space is available for a yearly fee.
- Picasa is not an advanced photo or video editor. You will not be able to make precise changes in photo coloration or limit effects to certain parts of pictures. You will also not be able to change the embedded photo date. Picasa also lacks sub-albums. Users with lots of pictures may find it more cost-effective to use photo services that charge a flat fee for unlimited storage space. If you're familiar with the community aspects of photo sites such as Flickr, you may feel rather lonely using Picasa.
