Picasa photo challenge goes to Europe!

Monday, August 2, 2010 8:00 AM

Posted by Christina Lin, Picasa Forum Guide

Last fall, as northern hemisphere-dwellers were enjoying the picturesque crisp days of autumn, we had an idea to host an Autumn photo challenge to uncover the hidden talents of the Picasa community. We were excited by the creativity and skill that our Picasa lovers displayed in our gallery &mdash see for yourself!

On a recent visit to Europe, we were so impressed with the architectural variety of the historical and contemporary buildings there that we were inspired to host the first Picasa Photo Challenge in Europe. We invited Dutch, French, German, Polish and Spanish communities to show off their best photo of architecture. Our Picasa community in Europe impressed and delighted us all. Unfortunately we could only choose one winner for each language group. The most ‘liked’ picture won the challenge and they are proudly featured on our Featured Photos page.

We want to thank all of our European users for their enthusiastic participation and a send a big congratulations to the winners!

ejwiersema, Dutch community


Raphael Melloul, French community


Jürgen, German community


Robert Mlynarczyk, Polish community


Jumy, Spanish community

Keep on clicking!

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.

Got Soccer Fever?

Tuesday, June 8, 2010 8:58 AM

Posted by K. Michael Alexander, Picnik UI Designer

The Picnik team recently launched a set of soccer-themed photo editing effects that make it easy and fun to show the world which team you’re cheering for in South Africa.



With the new effects, you can add digital face paint, soccer-themed stickers and team flag overlays, customized for each of the 32 qualifying teams. To get started, go to picnik.com and choose a photo to edit — you can upload from your computer or import one of your photos from Picasa Web Albums, Facebook, or other photo site. Pick a team from the pulldown menu, select a Soccer Fever effect you want to add, and edit away.

Search engines make the best picture frames

Monday, June 7, 2010 11:01 AM

Posted by Jon Emerson, Software Engineer

Photos can be displayed in all sorts of places; on a wall, on your desk or in a Picasa Web Album. We recently announced yet another place — the Google homepage, where you can use your favorite photos or images as a background. If you store your photos in Picasa Web Albums, you can choose a photo right from your existing albums. There is also the option to upload a photo from your computer or choose one from a public gallery of featured photos hosted by Picasa.


When you visit google.com, you’ll see a link in the lower left-hand corner inviting you to "Change background image." For those of you outside of the U.S. we will begin rolling this out to you within the next few days. If you don’t see the link yet, please check back soon.

Once you’ve customized your homepage with a fun personal photo we’d love to see what it looks like. Tweet a picture of your page with the hashtag #myGooglepage to share it with us.

Have fun customizing your new photo frame!

Last chance: free Eye-Fi card with Google storage purchase

Monday, May 24, 2010 10:15 AM

Posted by Zach Yeskel, Product Marketing Manager

Six months ago we began offering a free 4GB SDHC Eye-Fi card (a $95 value) to anyone who bought 200 GB of Google paid storage for $50, which is shared between Picasa Web Albums, Gmail, and Google Docs. An Eye-Fi card lets you wirelessly upload photos and videos from your camera directly to Picasa Web Albums, or straight to your computer - no cables needed.

As with all special offers, this too must come to an end: this Thursday, May 27th, is the last day to take advantage of this deal. Head to picasa.google.com/eyefi.html to check out all the details and get one for yourself.