Picasa versus iPhoto

I haved owned two iMacs. My latest is a 20" Intel iMac. I am very
happy with it.

I have wanted to do more photo editing, video editing and book
editing. Everything that you are supposed to accomplish on a Mac. I am
hopeful that I will. I like how iDVD, iMovie, iTunes and iPhoto
integrate.

But I still love Picasa. In fact, the latest version of Picasa began
offering web albums. What is great,is that the web album page has code
that you can integrate directly to your blog. That is what you see
below.

All very cool and all very free. 500 MB of web album space. In fact, I
signed up twice and I have two accounts. Don't tell Google.

iWeb which comes with the new iMac looks nice (although I believe that
RapidWeaver is a better product), allows you to easily upload to .Mac
.Mac accounts were originally free. Now they cost $60 per year. That
is a bit steep since Picasa/Google will give you 500 MB free.

Picasa is a better photo organizer that iPhoto. I have tried to
understand iPhoto but its simplicity still eludes. However with the
goal (and more disk space on my Mac), I have opted to move my digital
files to the Mac.

That leaves me in a bit of bind. Since most of my photos are on my
Mac, I want to upload to Picasa web albums from my Mac. I don't want
to transfer files between machines. I had thought about using a 60G
external drive to house all photos but it always seems that iPhoto or
Picasa want to put some type of signature around the photos or at
least the folders. I was not sure how well one directory would work.

So, what if I uploaded through the web interface of Picasa's web
album. Maybe that would work. When I logged onto the web albums, I was
greated with a download for my Mac. Picasa for the Mac? Could it be? I
could only hope. Alas, it was a poor man's version. Picasa has a web
album uploader. It does not integrate with iPhoto but I know where my
photos are stored.

So score another round for Picasa. I wonder, will Picasa develop for
the Mac? That would be great. Or maybe Apple could learn a bit from
Picasa. We will see.

In the mean time enjoy more photos.

Mike