Google Launches Picasa Web Albums

Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums. Picasa Web Albums is Picasa’s newest feature, designed to help users post and share their photos quickly and easily on the web.

Some feature highlights of Picasa Web Albums

* One-click web upload using Picasa’s new “Web Album” button
* Free storage space to post and share approximately 1000 photos, with the option to upgrade to more space
* High-quality photos, automatically resized and optimized to fill available screen space
* Pre-loaded images enable quick scrolling using arrow keys, and mimic a desktop experience of “flipping” through photos, even on the web
* End-to-end photo management that makes it easy to download uploaded photos back to your computer

Picasa with the Web Albums feature is free. However, you need an invitation to post and share photos on Picasa Web Albums and you can sign up for an invitation using your Gmail username. No invitation or sign-in is required to view a friend’s photos online. Picasa Web Albums account comes with 250MB of free image storage space.