Has anybody tried Picasa?

Has anybody tried out Google's Picasa? Are they just giving it away? Is it worth installing?

 

It is free, I haven't tried it yet though.
I'm with Anthony on this one I think - It's a step too far for my liking.

Nothing against the concept, Just got a LOT of G stuff on my machine already - I can't see the benefit of using it really - for me at least.

 

Desktop searching is supposed to become more important. With the next release of Windows, indexing and searching of all your files on your machine is supposed to be built in. Personally I'd rather have Google on my desktop than Microsoft.

 

I used it long time ago, it surprised me that it found some x pictures that I have forgotten

 

The best spyware free hard drive search that is a free download is at

www.diskmeta.com

It is the best thing since the GUI

You will not believe it until you download it and try it.

 

I've tried it.
Yes it's free. I'm not sure it was pay only before Google though.

I like it so far.
I take a lot of digital camera pictures though.
It's like most other picture/file browsers, but with some added flair.
It seems like it runs faster than other picture browser/organizers I've tried, which I like.

You can associate keywords with your pictures to find them easier later.
You can export an "Album" (folder or collection of pictures you've arranged) into a web page, with certain size thumbnails and full images pretty easily.
You can rotate, brighten, quick email, enhance, red-eye, etc. pictures straight from Picasa.
There is another program called Hello that Picasa can work with that easily lets you post a picture to your blogger account and comment on it. So this brings these software packages together Google-Picasa-Hello-Blogger-Google etc.
They all seem easy to use and pretty to look at and would probably be even more useful if I actually did things with my pictures and had more for better organization.

Overall I like it, and Picasa is worth a peek if nothing else. It's quick to install, scans what folders you want fast, and is easy to uninstall if needed.

 

Does it integrate with Gmail?

 

Nope, but when you E-Mail something it asks if you want to use your default email program (Outlook, Lotus, etc.) or if you want to use Picasa Express E-Mail. But maybe it will in the future. I'd imagine it might. (heck Google might even provide space for people to store images, or use part of the Gig in their Gmail account, who knows.)

This is where it looked iffy.
I chose Picasa express email to see what happens and it connects to Picasa's servers. E-Mail I assume (SMTP, POP3 whatever) and it gives you a little window where you type in the email of who you are sending the picture to, and what you want to say in the email. Plus you can change the email the recipient sees. Which seems pretty shady.

This made me think you can send annonymous emails to anyone with this software. although you are going through there email servers and they can probably track you. But if you are in a library PC, download the free software, and use this picasa express email, you might not get caught. Not that I'd condone this.

here is a screen shot of the express email window ...


I emailed a picture to a Gmail account with a fake email from address and it looked like it was official in the email I recieved. So I hope this doesn't get misused.

 

Looks pretty promising. Thanks for reminding me

 

I noticed that too SGH - Wonder if they will fix this..

 

There is lots of info on Picasa hello at http://www.googlehello.com/

It's a neat little program with many possibilities.