If you recall I was quite intrigued by the announcement of Picasa Web Albums but I had to wait for an invitation to try it. Well my invitation arrived and this afternoon I put it through its paces.
First of all to refresh your memory, here is how it differs from Flickr and right off the bat my main gripe with it
Unlike Flickr which has monthly upload restrictions, Picasa Web Albums are restricted by total volume. You can purchase additional space at $25 a year.
In the world of DSLRs and my usage habits, 250mb is not going to take me long at all to fill up. You will have to work out which makes most sense to you. Now that is out of the way, the good news!
When you first click through from your invitation you are asked to download the new beta of Picasa, the desktop application part of the pairing. 
The previous version of the software was, although not Photoshop by any means, all many amateur digital photographers would ever need including all the basics for workflow including even RAW compatibility. This version has only minor tweaks but just the fact that it is already so feature-rich and now you can upload to the web direct from Picasa, plus the fact this is free software, well it is pretty compelling.
After installing Picasa rattles through your machine looking for images to catalogue. Also you can import any folders you have in other locations such as external drives. 99% of the time it is happy to just get on with this in the background but I have had it lock up once or twice.
Arranging your library couldn’t be easier, it is even possible to hide images you don’t like rather than delete. You can favourite images as you navigate for later export or for dragging into an album. Once you have an album the way you like it you can then upload as a web album.
Unlike Flickr where sets are given cryptic urls, here they have names based on the title you gave it. Viewing the album is much like Flickr, having slide show or next/prev features but a nice addition is three thumbnail viewing sizes and the option to download a whole album. Bizarrely for a Google subsidiary they are not big on search and neither is there tagging, they do have RSS feeds however.
I could not find much evidence of community other than the ability to favourite other users, how you are supposed to find these other users I will have to work out.
Verdict
It’s a good start and is probably all anyone who has never seen Flickr would need but I am afraid the capacity restriction and lack of community gives Flickr the edge for me. Well worth taking for a spin though and definitely one to watch …
Take a look at my test account here at http://picasaweb.google.com/chris.garrett/
flickr, picasa, google, web, albums, photo, sharing, community, photography, news
Picasa for MacOsX Coming
According to TechCrunch a version of Picasa for Apple Macs will be coming along later:
I managed to pick the Google employee with the least amount of media training and immediately put her on the spot. Her response: Picasa for Mac is under-development and will be launched later this year.
This is great news, one of the [...]