Picasa Wed Sharing Tool

Group: Brianna, Yumi, Ryan, Robb


Overall, Picasa is a very (individually) user-friendly image hosting service. Those wanting to use it as a group sharing tool might want to steer clear. There is no real way to share and edit one album among many people without a few headaches. However, those with little to no experience uploading photos and videos, editing photos and dealing with extra gadgets can get the hang of it quickly without much trouble. All of the program’s buttons are very easy to find and use, and the layout gently guides you through the process.

The editing process is an example of how complex, yet simple, Picasa can be. A double-click on a photo takes you to the editing area. Here you can fix red-eye, retouch photos, add color filters and more. For those of us that are clueless about what to do to a photo to make it look better, Picasa features the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button. This fun button automatically fixes problems in the photo with one click.

To use Picasa, you have to download the free Picasa software. This is probably what scares some users away, but have no fear. This process is easy.

Once you have the software on your computer, forget searching for photos and uploading them. Picasa automatically searches folders that you specify and adds the video and photo files to your Picasa desktop, arranged neatly in albums. Kind of creepy but cool nonetheless.

Have some photos you don’t want others to see? No problem. You can easily choose which pictures you want to go live and which ones you want for your eyes only. By clicking the “Sync to the Web” button at the top of the album you post the album’s pictures to the web. The program will continuously and automatically add pictures that you put in that album on the web as long as you like. If you don’t want an image seen, don’t sync it. Once you sync your pictures and videos, a website window opens up and shows you all of the uploaded albums you have online.