Google to release Picasa beta for Mac

Picasa for the Mac includes the ability to make collages and other core features.

(Credit: Google)

Google plans to release on Monday a beta version of Picasa for Mac OS X, helping Apple fans catch up to Windows and Linux users already employing the free tool for editing, cataloging, and uploading photos.

The Mac version largely matches the features in Picasa 3 for Windows, said Jason Cook, Picasa's marketing manager. Though the company has been scrambling to include some secondary features such as geotagging and the ability to get photos printed, the core abilities of Picasa are present, he said.

Picasa lets people edit and print photos, create collages and movies, and add labels, star ratings, and tags. More significantly, given Google's cloud-computing focus, it also lets people upload their images to the company's online Picasa Web Albums site where images can be shared. Google acquired Picasa in 2004.

"We have many Mac users," Cook said, though declining to offer any estimates, "and we think they'll be excited about this. It makes the Picasa Web Albums experience better."

Online photo sites are great for several reasons, but problems can arise when people manage separate and different set of images. They often upload only a selection of photos on a PC, for example. Sometimes people upload images to an online site that never make it to the PC. And sometimes people add tags, captions, and titles online but not to the versions on their computers.

Picasa takes one important step in dealing with this potential rat's nest: when a person edits a photo on the PC, Picasa updates the version stored online. The reverse isn't true, though, but bidirectional synchronization is "something we're thinking about," Cook said. "We want to make sync as useful as possible."

Synchronization with the Mac's bundled iPhoto software is another area where people should tread carefully, though Picasa offers cautionary alerts to try to avert any trouble, Cook said. Picasa for the Mac doesn't interfere with iPhoto, he said, but for example when a person uses Picasa to edit a photo, iPhoto still shows the original, which Picasa preserves. And Picasa will read ratings and tags from iPhoto, but not vice-versa.

"We play nice. We take a hands-off, read-only approach with the iPhoto library," Cook said. "You can experiment with Picasa, and it won't screw up the images in the iPhoto library."

Before the Picasa for Mac was released, Google offered Mac users two other options for getting photos to Picasa Web Albums: an iPhoto plug-in and standalone upload tool.

[wango2007]

Still, all this proves is that it a Windows world. Now Picasa works with OSX, but is a couple years late, a stripped down version, and doesn't sync. BFD.

The "Mac Tax" in action.

[js.matrix]

@wango2007 - It surely is a Windows world as numbers rule, like Windows or not. So was it also a VHS world in the days of VHS vs Beta. Numbers rule, like it or not. And, there is nothing about being a couple years late. Nothing late about it at all. You can perhaps thank the world of Apple (and market share) for that one. Picasa is free, granted, but, if you were a developer in business to make money, would you develop for a million people, or for a few thousand? Google does not HAVE to develop for Apple users. They are doing so because gradually they are seeing an increase in market share. As such, they deem it to be perhaps no longer a waste of time to develop for that niche portion of the market. So, there is no 'lateness' factor as you portray it to be.

I am also recently (about a year) a user of Mac coming from years of Windows. One thing I do notice about MacWorld is that it is almost like a cult. And, if something has ANYthing to do with Windows, then it's nasty. This Macworld sentiment is beginning to give me second impressions about continuing on a Mac. So, even a further BFD (emotional detection here) for iPhoto, which for proprietary and clumsy reasons of the program have refused to use since I started using OS-X.

[dbloyd]

Remember that the 90% of those Windows machines are not for people looking at their home photos. Many are Dells, HPs, and Gateway PCs in some cube in an office. If you just look at the home market, the number of Macs is most likely a bigger percentage and worth developing apps.

[BGrus]

Are there any Mac users who would want to use this? By choosing to OS X isn't it implicit the user has opted for iPhoto? (Or Lightroom/Aperture if they're more feature demanding?)

Maybe there are Google fanboys who will give this a shot or switchers who would be more comfortable with a less colorful interface.

I find all of these photo organization programs to be remarkably similar regardless of what platform, but my needs are simple, but probably more demanding than the typical end user.

[whosafraid]

I don't know if I'd pay for it (maybe $10), but I absolutely cannot stand iPhoto and have been waiting for something like Picasa for Mac since I got a Mac.

What I hate most about iPhoto is how it totally hides my files from me. I want control of my files. I email them. I upload them to Facebook. I use other programs to edit them. But since there's no good thumbnail viewer in Finder (still -- coverflow is not what I want), something like Picasa is handy. I also detest Events in iPhoto -- totally useless to me.

[digimark]

My aunt in Ohio is a PC->Mac transfer for a few years now, and the only non-Mac program she uses (in a Parallels WinXP virtual machine) is Picasa for Windows. Today's beta release answered her prayers. She's not sophisticated enough to want to deal with Aperture or Lightroom and like others iPhoto confused her with the way it stores pictures. Picasa stores pictures in the same directory structure she had already established in her PC's MyPhotos heirarchy. Finally, while iPhoto is widely available, it's not free. Updates cost more -- not necessarily a lot more, but my aunt is a cash-strapped retiree. She's going to have a good day tomorrow when she gets the news.

[larrymcj1]

I'm a HUGE Apple fan (and of course, Windows conver) but as much as I love everything about OS X I very much dislike iPhoto. I've used the past three versions and it just doesn't do it for me. I've been using Picasa 3 since it came out, but up until v3.0.4, which just came out on Mar 2, 2009, it had too many problems. They totally fixed everything I didn't like about now and I've been happily using it for two days not.

That said, when you first install Picasa it simply uses your iPhoto library...but does so very elegantly and with it's Folder Manager. If you want, you can grab your original photos out of the the iPhoto Package Contents and put them in folders (2000, 2001, 2002...) or however you want, and then train Picasa to use those. Picasa is NOT a folder/album/picture manager...it simply uses whatever you feed it.

I think I'll end up keeping Picasa and iPhoto simply because iPhoto is perfectly tied to Facebook and Flikr, while Picase is seamlessly integrated into Picasa Web Albums (goodbye iPhoto Web Albums plugin)...so for me therre is utility in both. Picasa is VERY happy just displaying it's content from your iPhoto Library, so for many this is a perfect marriage.

[bommai]

Unlike whoisafraid, I like the fact iPhoto hides the files from me. It is called data abstraction. If iPhoto can give you different sizes of the different pictures for email, web sharing, etc, why do you need access to the individual files all the time. Also, iPhoto Library is a folder. You can even set iPhoto to not manage your folders.

[scatlizard]

I'm a Mac user, it works for me, I don't have problems with the OS. Just been messing around with Picasa, its faster with more features, plus its free. I have a G mail account and a mobile me account and when it comes time to renewing my mobile me account I will not be renewing it unless Apple lowers the price significantly.

[BernardMaks]

I have downloaded Picasa for Mac beta, it ran three times and now when I load it it just quits automatically.

Any help would be appreciated

Bernard

[zakb7]

Doesn't work with non-Intel (i.e. older) Macs. But who cares, iPhoto does the same thing.

[picasawebassistant]

For all of you mac users who want to download entire albums, I wrote a simple java utility to do it. Just search download.com for "picasa" it's the third result down. Just unzip it, and run the .jar file. Please leave a comment if you have time.

Thanks,
Bradley

[larrymcj1]

@picasawebassistant: I've searched...not finding your java utility. Could you provide us a URL? Thanks.