New York — Almost after a year, Google on Tuesday released a latest version of its photo editing software, Picasa 3.5, for both Mac and PC., which integrates photo tagging and Google Maps association for geo-tagging.
That extra 0.5 at the finish bundles up a great new feature, face recognition, just like iLife 09, but there is a lots more besides.
Notably, the most novel feature is the addition of name tags, which allows users to organize photos based on who is in them. This uses the same technology that powers a similar feature on Picasa Web Albums.
“Once you install and launch Picasa 3.5, the program will start scanning your existing photos to create groups of people with similar facial characteristics,” explains> Software Engineer Todd Bogdan. “It assembles all these groups into the “Unnamed People” album, where you can easily add a name tag to a set of faces by clicking “Add a name” and typing the person’s name. If you are signed into your Google account, names from your address book will auto-complete as you type.”
After you add a name, Picasa will create an album dedicated to that person. Add more pictures, and Picasa will suggest which album it thinks your photo belongs.
“You can use the name tags you have added and your new people albums to do creative things with your photos. For example, you can find all of the photos with the same two people in them, create customizable face collages, time-lapse movies, and more,” Google wrote in a blog post.
Tagged photos can be synched between the desktop version of Picasa and Picasa Web Albums. On the Web, go to Tools and click “Download Name Tags from Picasa Web Albums.” From Picasa, click “upload tagged photos.”
Now you know who these people are, might as well tell people where you are. Another fascinating feature in the latest version of Picasa is the Google Maps feature, which enables you to geotag images one at a time or several at once. When you geo-tag an image, you can select a group and see where they were all taken on a map. You no longer have to open Google Earth to add geo tags.
“Simply select pictures, click the Places panel, search or surf to a place, and drop a pin in the right place on the map. Once you have added geo tags, you can select a group of photos and see where they were all taken.”
The new version of the software should appear as an update for users of Picasa v3.1 the next time they start the program. It can also be forced to update by clicking the “check for updates online” option in the help menu.
In addition to these features, Picasa has some design changes to things like the import process and the Tags panel. Finally, Google has removed the beta tags from Picasa for Mac, which debuted nine months ago.