Google Press Center: Press Release

Google Releases Improved Photo Management Software to Organize and Share Pictures

Picasa 2 Offers Editing Tools, Advanced Effects, Better Organization and CD Burning for Digital Photo Users — For Free

Mountain View, Calif. – January 18, 2005 – Google Inc. today released Picasa™ 2, free photo management software that makes it simpler than ever for people to organize, edit and share their digital pictures. Available at http://www.picasa.com, Google's new version of Picasa offers photographers of all skill levels easy-to-use tools that automatically organize even the largest photo collections on a PC and turn average snapshots into great pictures.

New and improved features of Picasa include:

Advanced editing tools – Fix pictures with more powerful tools, 12 photographic filter effects, color and lighting adjustments, red-eye removal, photo cropping and straightening.

Improved organization – Add captions, quickly and easily search across all photos on a computer, attach labels and stars for better photo organization, reorder pictures and clean up cluttered folders.

Backup capabilities – Archive photos from a computer to a CD or DVD, save photos on an external drive, and create gift CDs with personalized slideshows.

Customized prints – Print at home with standard sizes, or order photo prints by uploading pictures to Ofoto, Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Walmart.com.

Enhanced sharing features – Email photos via Gmail (and other email clients), upload photos to a Blogger blog, and send and discuss photos in real-time via Hello™, Picasa's free peer-to-peer software, available at http://www.hello.com.

"With Picasa 2, we've made it easier for people to find, organize, improve and enhance their photographs, as well as create photo CDs, personalized slideshows, desktop collages, and much more," said Lars Perkins, General Manager, Picasa, Google Inc. "Digital photos are an important and growing category of personal information, and Picasa is in line with Google's commitment to develop advanced technologies that further help users to find, organize and share information that's important to them."

More information about Picasa can be found at http://www.picasa.com.

About Google Inc.
Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google's targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit www.google.com.

Google is a registered trademark, and Picasa, Hello, Gmail and Blogger are trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.