The latest version of Picasa is now ready for download. It’s been a couple of months since we’ve seen an update, with the last major version in February including a big update with support for Windows Vista and updated icons.
This time around, you’ll notice major speed improvements in comparison to the previous versions, and better RAW support. Other major improvements include better integration for blogs with the “Blog This!” feature, and support for Google Photos Screensaver. It’s the same screensaver that was introduced last month, and it’s bundled with the Google Pack. They’ve also made it easy to upload videos to Google Video right from Picasa.
It’s great that there are so many options for photo managing, editing, and sharing like Picasa. There’s really no need for the average person to shell out money for software when there are free options including many web based services that get the job done.
I’ve been using Picasa for several years now and am very happy with it. If they ever make the Web Albums password protected, I’d use them too.
Chris, have you gotten the update yet? I’m just curious if you noticed speed improvements? I’m also surprised they haven’t made Picasa Web Albums password protected. That’s one of the reasons I haven’t used Picasa for my photos. Instead I went to Flickr where I could set up a guest log-in, and all my pictures are private.
Yes, I definitely notice speed improvements.
I remember you guys saying that you’re happy with the Flickr Pro account.
How does the guest login work? Do guests have to have a Yahoo account? Do you give your family and friends a password? I’m just curious just in case I decide to go with Flickr at some point.
I think Picasa has an auto-update feature somewhat. So you don’t have to download the new version. It’ll just ask you if you want to upgrade.
Flickr lets you mark which photos your Family can see and which ones your Friends can see. Then you specify via Yahoo usernames which people are friends and which ones are family. For those of our family members who don’t have such accounts we just created a generic account that we can give them.
Ahh..Ok..I like how they separate family and friends. That’s a great feature.
And good idea about creating the generic account…Thanks for the info.
Last ver.2.7.37.32 is a good improvement, on Vista ! You’re right, no need to shell out money, the web job is done and well done!
Now, for further photo editing, maybe the latest Gimp…