Picasa
About a month ago, Google bought Picasa, which makes image browsing software. Now you can download Google Picasa, which is being promoted at, you guessed it, Google Image Search. After testing out Picasa for a little while, two things pop out. First, the product seems very useful, but only if you specifically need it. It won't make you want to organize your pictures, but it sure as hell does the job right if you need to. The second is that the program doesn't have a Google feel. Hell, it doesn't have a Windows feel. It mimics the Mac OS on the PC, which is a neat design idea, but will drive PC users nuts. And Google programs aren't supposed to feel like they are programs at all, which this certainly does. It is the most unGoogle program they've ever released. Of course, its only been a month, and we can assume the next version will be very colorful and run entirely in JavaScript. I kid, I kid!

- posted by Nathan Weinberg @ 8/24/2004 10:17:00 PM