Many people know that Picasa just reached the age of 2.0. Let this serve as notice to those who might have missed that or those who felt that it wasn’t a big deal - you’re missing out on a Good Thing.

Picasa wasn’t released as a 2.0 product without changes. Remember - this is Google we’re talking about. Picasa 2.0 is a whole lot more than version 1 ever tried to be. The main new feature is the inclusion of an almost completely redesigned photo editor. Oh, it hides beind a screen that looks just like the opener for the version 1 editor, but now, it really IS a photoeditor, boasting nearly all the tools you need in order to clean up the look of your digital photos.

This is a First Look, so I’ll leave you all to discover the goodies under the hood. Suffice it to say that Picasa has just joined some other very good software on my ‘must install’ list.

[3.06M] [Win98/Me/2k/XP] [FREE] [Google]

Picasa is software that helps you instantly find, edit and share all the pictures on your PC. Every time you open Picasa, it automatically locates all your pictures (even ones you forgot you had) and sorts them into visual albums organized by date with folder names you will recognize. You can drag and drop to arrange your albums and make labels to create new groups. Picasa makes sure your pictures are always organized.

Picasa also makes advanced editing simple by putting one-click fixes and powerful effects at your fingertips. And Picasa makes it a snap to share your pictures – you can email, print photos home, make gift CDs, instantly share via Hello, and even post pictures on your own blog.