Google is Shutting Down Picasa on May 1, 2016

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Last updated by rhiannon on 14. February 2016 - 18:01

Picasa logo. Colorful illustration of camera shutter

Google will be shutting down Picasa Web Albums on May 1, 2016, and as of March 15, 2016, it will no longer support the Picasa Desktop application. Google appears to be dropping Picasa web albums in favor of Google Photos - if you currently have photos and/or videos in Picasa web albums you can access, edit, and share them by logging in to Google Photos. If you'd prefer not to use Google Photos, you'll need to wait a bit - Google says ".... for those of you who don’t want to use Google Photos or who still want to be able to view specific content, such as tags, captions or comments, we will be creating a new place for you to access your Picasa Web Albums data. That way, you will still be able to view, download, or delete your Picasa Web Albums, you just won’t be able to create, organize or edit albums."

You'll still be able to use Picasa Desktop, but there won't be any further updates and Google won't be providing support for the program after March 15, 2016. If you like it and use it, I'd suggest downloading the latest version and keeping on hand in case you want to re-install it down the road, or check the two categories below for the best free alternative programs.

Related:
Best Free Digital Photo Organizer
Best Free Digital Image Editor

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Comments

I am currently in the process of de-googling my life and this shut down fits right into that. A sincere thank you to Google.

Here's a good starting point:-

https://prism-break.org/en/all/

I've tried Picassa several times; always wound up uninstalling it.

You don't say why!

Because the interface was annoying, and it did things its way, which was not my preferred way.

I didn't want to put my pictures in the cloud, nor to give Google access to them, and to deal with the pictures on my computer, it didn't fo what i wanted.

How about:-

digiKam
Photo Management Program | Manage your photographs as a professional with the power of Open Source
https://www.digikam.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DigiKam

Open source and file placement / backup fully in your control.

I'll take a look.

from my post: "......Google appears to be dropping Picasa web albums in favor of Google Photos" Also, if you click on the link to the original article you'll get more details. :)

Hi rhiannon,

I was replying to Fairportfan, not your original article. I was asking why they "always wound up uninstalling it".

Oooops, sorry!

I took a quick look at Flickr and was unimpressed.

Flickr is owned by Yahoo. They are cutting well over 1,000 jobs. I wouldn't be surprised if they continue to scale back and retire products and take another direction. It will be interesting to see if they continue to support Flickr.

Why? Why? I use Picasa every time I download pictures to my PC. I use it for cataloging, editing, collages, Geo viewing, uploading to Picasa Albums and more.

Good question. Google continues to shut down programs (for example, the demise of the much loved Google Reader and now Picasa) that seem popular. I don't use many Google products anymore because they disappear, I'd rather use something I know will be around for a while, and if it goes away, there's going to be a reason I understand for it. :)
+1 rhiannon, exactly what I was going to say. I actually moved to Google Photos and paid for a subscription. I soon dumped it because it defaults to working with files according to the date a photo is taken. I prefer to work with on-disk organization in folders because I have many photos that are scanned so they don't have the correct date. Picasa works either way so it allowed me to organize my photos by putting them into file folders named by date.
There does seem to be an underlying theme that people work with digital photos in just one way........ it seems to extend to some other Google products as well. Gmail in particular is frustrating, it's not intuitive for me at all. Even the plethora of keyboard shortcuts for Gmail don't offset the issue. Maybe it's me, but it's just too......linear. :)

I use the face recognition feature quite often. Does any other freeware offer this feature?

digiKam
Photo Management Program | Manage your photographs as a professional with the power of Open Source
https://www.digikam.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DigiKam

FotoBounce is free with facial recognition as a key feature for organizing photos. I haven't used it but it runs on Windows and Mac OS/X.

If you try it, let us know how it goes.

Diffractor is a nice program and from what i can understand it is a freeware/donationware program.
http://www.diffractor.com/

I guess it was only a matter of time… Presumably the next (and last?) to go will be the desktop version of Google Earth, and after that there’s not much left for the vandals at Google to kill.

Best move towards Open Source and privacy consciousness:-

https://prism-break.org/en/all/#world-maps

I'm thinking Feedburner will be biting the dust, I've been reading reports how it's not being developed and rumors it will stop being supported. Who knows what's next though..............

Picasa Alternatives and Similar Software - AlternativeTo.net
https://alternativeto.net/software/picasa/

Another Google blunder.

Google Notes was excellent, Google RSS Reader was superb!
What gives Google?

At least if Picasa could be released as Open Source...

I agree, Google Notes was good. When they shut that down is when I stopped using Google products for the most part......I still used Google Reader but then they dropped it. Likely Google Search and Gmail will stick around..........the rest, who knows? I read that they have a program called Google Keep that's supposed to be a notes program, but I haven't looked it at given the longevity of other Google products.

Indeed. I am still missing proper alternative for both web picasa and pc software. Have to also agree with RSS, still no solid replacement! Pity that they do not release it as open source.

I'm a little sad about the demise of Picasa. I found it easy to use and polished, with useful features but not too many. Too bad that all good things come to an end.

Are there any recommendations for a desktop alternative to Picasa?

I"ve been looking since last night and a good part of today, haven't found anything so far but if I do I'll share it.

Thank you! My hopes are not high for an equivalent. Picasa was unique. Everything you could want was there. A nice balance of simplicity and complexity. I'll hold onto it and use it as long as it remains operational. For them to abandon something that was so useful is very sad. "Progress" wins out over utility and user satisfaction.

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