Digital Home Thoughts: Google Releases Picasa 3.0 Beta

"A little over two years ago, we launched Picasa Web Albums to make publishing photos online easy. Now Picasa Web Albums hosts billions of online photos from around the globe, with users adding millions of new snapshots every day. Each of these photos records a different moment, or a different perspective, but one thing they all have in common is that in each case, the person behind the camera wanted to share their experience with a friend, their extended family, or maybe the world. Today, we're rolling out major technology upgrades to both Picasa and Picasa Web Albums. As you might have guessed, these are largely focused on how we share and enjoy our photos with others."

I honestly thought that Picasa was an abandoned product - Google hadn't released a significant update in so long I was sure it was a dead product walking. I'm so glad I was wrong! Picasa 3.0 is currently in beta and available for download. Although I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, the features in it look really exciting: the text tool (pictured above), the collage tool, the heal tool, and the movie making tool all look like great additions. After the break, there are two walk-through videos that highlight some of these new features.