Image Database Software | TestPicasa 3 – not to be confused with the Picasa
Web Albums service – is available for
Windows and Mac. The Linux version is no
longer being developed. Right from the
start, Google remains true to its reputation
as data collector extraordinaire, and the
default import settings index all your
personal folders and sometimes even your
entire hard disk! However, once the program
is running, you can use the folder manager
to decide which data you want to have
scanned. The program itself determines the
time interval between scans, so you may
have to be patient if you have made
significant changes to your photo collection
since the last scan. The program uses
the local file system and provides
only rudimentary asset management
functionality, making it necessary to use the
operating system to perform many routine
file management tasks.
Right from the start, Picasarecognized and
supported 122 of our 129 sample RAW
formats. The only files that caused problems
were NEF and older Canon TIF-RAW files. Files
and folders of files that it doesn’t recognize
are simply not displayed. Albums work
like virtual collections and, thanks to full
integration with Google+ and Picasa Web
Albums, uploading your images to the cloud
is a snap.
Picasa provides only titles and tags for the
user to apply. Its lack of support for complete
IPTC metadata field sets means that its search
functionality is meager, although it does allow
you to search using name tags and folder
names.
On the plus side, the display and
application of geodata tags is very well
implemented, but you have to take care when
geotagging RAW files, as the metadata this
creates is stored in Google’s proprietary
picasa.ini file instead of in a standardized XMP
sidecar. We also found that the program was
unable to interpret GeoSetter tags that we
added to sample NEF files.Face recognition is one of Picasa’s real
strengths, and it searches large numbers of
images quickly and accurately. Hit rates are
high and increase with added user input.
Name tags function just like geotags and
are only saved directly to an XMP sidecar (for
JPEG images) if you adjust the program’s
preferences accordingly. Name tags for RAW
images are saved to the picasa.ini file. These
limitations make Picasa less than perfect for
sharing data between applications. Even within
the Google ecosystem, the use of name tags is
subject to various legal restrictions. Currently,
you can only export tagged images to
Google+, and then only if the person portrayed
gives their explicit permission. Name tags are
not supported in Picasa Web Albums.
All in all, Picasa 3is easy and fun to use, its
face recognition features are by far the best in
our test and it integrates well into the Google
cloud. However, its meager metadata
functionality lets it down and ensures that it
remains an isolated single-user solution.Google Picasa 3
Picasauses simple mouseover techniques to check if it recognizes the faces in a photo