14 DAY TRIAL // Google has finally updated its Picasa desktop software, which feels somewhat neglected compared to the web-based side of the product. The search giant is of course an Internet company but a little focus on the desktop app is a nice change. Picasa 3.5 comes with some interesting features, like face recognition with auto-tagging, only a year after it was introduced in Picasa Web Albums, and Google Maps integration.
“Today, we are pleased to announce Picasa 3.5, a new version of our free photo editing software for Mac or PC. Picasa 3.5 has name tags and uses the same technology that powers name tags on Picasa Web Albums. With name tags, you can organize your photos based on what matters most: the people in them,” Todd Bogdan, software engineer at Google, wrote. “Picasa 3.5 also has integrated Google Maps to make geotagging even easier. Now you can add location info to photos - one photo at a time or several photos at once.“
The first time you launch the new Picasa 3.5 the software will scan the photos looking for people and grouping the ones it believes are similar. The groups then show up in the “Unnamed People” album where you can label them according to the persons in them. If you are logged in you will be able to choose from your Google Contacts but you can also create new identities for the people in the photos. It's far from perfect but it does the job after some human intervention. After the initial scan, whenever you add new photos Picasa will try to label them accordingly.
The second big feature introduced in Picasa 3.5 is the Google Maps integration. Geotagging fans will enjoy this new functionality, which was present in the online version since launch. You can select a photo or a group of photos and then select their location in the new Places panel. The location information is also synced with Picasa Web Albums and you can still use Google Earth to add geolocation data just like before.
Google Picasa 3.5 is available for download here.