Moving on from Picasa

Friday, February 12, 2016 10:00 AM

Update March 26, 2018: The Picasa Desktop application will no longer work online, which means that you will not be able to upload or download photos and videos, create online albums, or delete online photos, videos and albums.

Please note, you’ll still be able to access all of your photos and videos in Google Photos at https://photos.google.com/. If you want to upload photos and videos to Google Photos, you can use Backup and Sync at photos.google.com/apps.

---

Update Aug. 2: The album archive page for Picasa Web Albums is now live. You can view, download, or delete your Picasa Web Albums data on this page.

---

Since the launch of Google Photos, we’ve had a lot of questions around what this means for the future of Picasa. After much thought and consideration, we’ve decided to retire Picasa over the coming months in order to focus entirely on a single photo service in Google Photos. We believe we can create a much better experience by focusing on one service that provides more functionality and works across mobile and desktop, rather than divide our efforts across two different products.

We know for many of you, a great deal of care has gone into managing your photos and videos using Picasa—including the hours you’ve invested and the most precious moments you’ve trusted us with. So we will take some time in order to do this right and provide you with options and easy ways to access your content. We’ve outlined below some of the changes you can expect.

Picasa Web Albums
If you have photos or videos in a Picasa Web Album today, the easiest way to still access, modify and share most of that content is to log in to Google Photos, and all your photos and videos will already be there. Using Google Photos, you can continue to upload and organize your memories, as well as enjoy other great benefits like better ways to search and share your images.

However, for those of you who don’t want to use Google Photos or who still want to be able to view specific content, such as tags, captions or comments, we will be creating a new place for you to access your Picasa Web Albums data. That way, you will still be able to view, download, or delete your Picasa Web Albums, you just won’t be able to create, organize or edit albums (you would now do this in Google Photos).

One thing to make clear is that none of this is happening today—if you have a Picasa Web Album you can keep using it as normal. We’ll start rolling out these changes on May 1, 2016.

Desktop application
As of March 15, 2016, we will no longer be supporting the Picasa desktop application. For those who have already downloaded this—or choose to do so before this date—it will continue to work as it does today, but we will not be developing it further, and there will be no future updates. If you choose to switch to Google Photos, you can continue to upload photos and videos using the desktop uploader at photos.google.com/apps.

Finally for developers, we will also be retiring some functions of the Picasa API. Developers can learn more here.

Again, none of these changes are happening today, and we’ll continue to update you along the way. We apologize for any inconvenience this transition causes, but we want to assure you that we are doing this with the aim of providing the best photos experience possible. Google Photos is a new and smarter product, that offers a better platform for us to build amazing experiences and features for you in the future.

Posted by Anil Sabharwal, Head of Google Photos

Picasa 3.9: Now with Google+ sharing and tagging

Thursday, December 8, 2011 1:19 PM

Posted by Chandrashekar Raghavan, Product Manager

Picasa 3.9, the latest update to the Picasa client, is ready for you to try out! This update includes Google+ sharing and tagging, new photo editing effects and lots more. To download Picasa 3.9, click here.

Sharing on Google+
Photos are a great way to capture that special moment, and now with Picasa 3.9, you can share those memories on Google+. When you log in with a Google+ account (sign up at google.com/+), you’ll see several new features:

• Share with people in your Google+ circles: Picasa 3.9 makes it easy to share the right photos with the right people with just a few clicks. To share an album, just click on the green “Share on Google+” button and add the specific circles you want to share your photos with. Find out more here.

And of course, you can always share by adding someone’s email address or emailing them a link to the album.

• Tag people in your circles:  When you click a photo to tag a friend, the dropdown menu now includes people in your Google+ circles in addition to your Gmail contacts. If you tag friends from Google+, Picasa will automatically suggest that you share your pictures with them when you upload your album. Learn more about tagging.

• Upload all your pictures for free:  Picasa 3.9 offers two simple upload options for Google+ users, original size and best for web sharing. When you select the “Best for web sharing”  option, you can upload any number of pictures for free! What’s more, these pictures are uploaded at high resolutions of up to 2048 px.

That’s not all...
In addition to these Google+ features, all users can enjoy the following improvements (listed on our What’s new page).

• 24 new photo editing effects 

• Side by side photo comparison

• Simplified tray interface: Less commonly used tray icons (such as BlogThis!, Collage, Movie, Shop)  are hidden by default (you can always add them back).

Give this new version of Picasa a try, and as always, we’d love to hear your feedback.  If you'd prefer to keep using Picasa 3.8, you can download it from our archives here (Mac - Windows).

Google Photography Prize: Looking for the photography stars of the future

Thursday, November 10, 2011 10:58 AM

(Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog)

Google+ is only a few months old, but the photography community is already thriving on it. Take a look at the profiles of Scott Jarvie, Thomas Hawk, Colby Brown or Claire Grigaut to see just a few of the inspiring photographers on Google+. More than 3.4 billion photos have been uploaded to the platform in the first 100 days.

We’re really excited about this, and think great art deserves great exposure. So we’re teaming up with Saatchi Gallery, London for the Google Photography Prize, a chance for students around the world to showcase their photos on Google+ and have their work exhibited at a major art institution.

The contest is open to university students around the world (some exceptions apply, see google.com/photographyprize for more details). From far-away places to up-close faces, there are 10 different categories to spark your imagination. And there are some great prizes to be won: 10 finalists chosen by a jury of renowned photographers will show their work at Saatchi Gallery, London for two months in 2012 alongside Out of Focus, a major photography exhibition, and win a trip to London to attend the exhibition opening event with a friend. One winner will go on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to an amazing destination with a professional photography coach.

It’s easy to enter: After you pick a category, upload your photos to Google+ and share them with the world as a public post, then visit the submission form on google.com/photographyprize by January 31, 2012 to enter.

Saatchi Gallery, London will share updates on their Google+ page for the contest, so add it to your circles if you want to see the great work that’s being submitted.

We can’t wait to see your photos!

Posted by Obi Felten, Director of Consumer Marketing, Google EMEA

Share your Machu Picchu photos with the world

Wednesday, July 6, 2011 9:15 AM

Posted by Debbie Jaffe, New Business Development Director, Latin America

Much has changed in the world of photography since I first visited the “Lost Inca City” of Machu Picchu in 1997 after my wedding in Peru. On my first trip I had a “regular” point and shoot camera with cartridge film. I had to scan the prints and host them on my own website to share photos with my friends. When I visited Machu Picchu with my parents last year, digital cameras were everywhere, and we were able to capture the sites and quickly share photos via Picasa Web Albums.

Now everyone is invited to share their favorite Machu Picchu photos with the world. July 24 marks the 100th anniversary of the scientific discovery of Machu Picchu by American Hiram Bingham in 1911. PromPerú, Peru’s tourism ministry, is celebrating the anniversary with events and a Machu Picchu centennial website where they are inviting visitors to share their most amazing pictures of this historical sanctuary in the Machu Picchu vistors photo gallery. The best photos will be recognized by PromPerú and CAN-Machu Picchu (the committee in charge of the Machu Picchu 100 year celebration) and will be published on the official anniversary website. You only have until July 31 to submit your photos, and publication of selected photos will be on Wednesday, August 3rd. Let’s see if my mom lets me submit this one :)

Google Photos Salutes National Travel & Tourism Week

Monday, May 9, 2011 8:47 AM

Posted by Brian Rose, Community Manager

Traveling is one of the most exciting things you can do, so a camera is a must-have on your packing list. Part of the fun of capturing your trip is to share it with others and relive the experience yourself years later. So in honor of U.S. National Travel & Tourism week, we’d like to invite everyone to visit Panoramio and take a virtual trip to Las Vegas, Zurich, or Hawaii; upload your latest trip to Picasa Web Albums; or edit with Picnik to highlight just how magnificent that blue sky was, and share with your friends and family.

We hope you enjoy some of the Photos team’s favorite photos from our travels. To create your own photo collage with Picasa, follow these steps.

So whether you’re about to leave on a trip, just returned or inspired by Travel & Tourism week to set out on an adventure, don’t forget your camera. Whether you’re off to some exotic destination or even your hometown, remember to share with the world the photos you’ve taken. Happy travels!

Google.com/Weddings Sweepstakes Winner

Tuesday, April 19, 2011 9:06 AM

Posted by Peter Harbison, Product Marketing Manager Team

A little over three months ago, we announced Google.com/Weddings to help couples during the wedding planning process. Since launch, we’ve been overwhelmed by the positive feedback with over 700,000 visits.

As part of that announcement, we partnered with Michelle Rago to not only help us with creative direction but also with hosting a wedding sweepstakes. The prize is $25,000 towards a dream wedding designed by Michelle.

The sweepstakes ended on March 29th and today we’re pleased to announce that the randomly selected winning couple was Philong Nguyen and Nhu-Y Nguyen of Houston, Texas.

Philong and Nhu-Y are currently using Google Docs to organize every facet of their wedding; Google Sites to build their wedding website, Picasa Web Albums to share photos with friends and Picnik to edit their photos. Philong had this to share about their engagement:

“We had already been looking at rings so I decided I wanted the time and place to be a complete surprise. Luckily she was working one weekend and had to go to work very early since she works in a hospital in the lab. I’m usually sleeping at that time, so I knew she wouldn’t expect to see me at 5 AM in the morning when she left for work. I woke up very early, brought dozens of roses that I had bought the day before and plucked, and created a trail of rose petals that led her from her door to the backyard where it ended in a heart with me waiting on the grass. Of course, the hardest part was waiting for her to open the door but when she did she followed the trail, found me and said Yes."

The couple will be working with Michelle Rago to design their September wedding. We can‘t wait to see the pictures. Congratulations to Philong and Nhu-Y!

Cross-posted on Blogger Buzz

You asked, we listened

Friday, April 8, 2011 12:05 PM

Posted by Tammy McLeod, Software Engineer

We recently made some updates to Picasa Web Albums to address some of your top feature requests. In addition to sorting your displayed albums on Picasa Web by upload and album date, you can also now sort by album title. Visit your My Photos tab, then select “Album title” from the drop-down menu.

We’ve also made it easier to update your album visibility and photo location settings with a new “Edit visibility” link. Quickly see your visibility settings across all your albums, make changes, and when you’re all set, click “Done.”

Changed your name, or changed your email address? We added an option to transfer your photos, videos, comments, and people you follow to a new or existing Google account. Learn all about the account migration tool in our help center, or check it out from your Settings page.

As always, you can share your feedback about our updates, ask a question, or suggest a new feature in our forum.