Swivel through your photos

Friday, July 30, 2010 2:29 PM

Posted by Jason Holt, Software Engineer for Street View

Ever marveled at the way many retail sites create 360 views of products? Now you can bring your own photo albums to life by clicking and dragging left and right on a photo in full screen mode. This works especially well if you put an object on a turntable, but even if you're not looking to create a 3-D effect, it also provides a unique browsing experience for albums in general, like our featured shots from the 2010 Winter games.



This feature is available in our embedded album viewer, or if you prefer to host a viewer and images on your own site, check out the Swivel Viewer site at code.google.com, where you'll find an Open Source embeddable album viewer that also supports zooming and panning.

Picasa Web Albums goes on a Picnik

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 11:00 AM

Posted by Thomas Kang and Steve Leroux, Software Engineers for
Picasa Web and Picnik

A few months back we welcomed Picnik, the powerful online photo editor, into the Google family and today we’re happy to share the first of more exciting things to come.

Picnik’s rich editing tools are now integrated into Picasa Web Albums allowing you to experience them without ever having to leave your account. As long as you’re using Picasa in one of the Picnik supported languages, just click ‘edit’ from the edit drop down menu or from the new handy Picnik icon.



Then, Picnik away by applying an effect, adding a sticker, or exploring your own creative path with advanced tools. When you are done editing your photo, save back to your album by either replacing the existing image or making a new copy.



Sometimes 1+1 really does equal more than 2.
Happy Picniking (from right inside of Picasa Web Albums).

Democracy Photo Challenge

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 4:37 PM

Posted by Michael Bolognino, Product Marketing Manager

What does democracy mean to you? This is a personal question whose answer can be expressed in many ways--with lines of prose, a video documentary, or a even single photo.

To inspire people around the world to use photography to share their individual perspectives on democracy, a unique group of partners made up of democracy and youth organizations, academia, the film/entertainment industry, technology companies and the U.S. Department of State launched The Democracy Photo Challenge, the first contest powered by Picasa Web Albums.



Submissions will be accepted by photographers of any experience level until July 28, followed by the selection of 36 finalists by an independent jury. The public will choose 12 winners during a global online vote from August 19 - 26, and the winning photos will be part of a special exhibition at the United Nations and at other venues.

Let the power of an image be your voice. To submit your photo, visit democracyphotochallenge.america.gov.