Google Picasa

Google Picasa is earning enthusiastic reviews, though the highest compliments are reserved for its photo-organizing features. Those include face-recognition, for scanning photos and automatically organizing them by who is in the shot, and geotagging, which lets you add geographic data that can be used for organizing or by other programs (displaying images on a map in Google Earth, for example). Image-editing tools can't compare to those in more sophisticated programs, such as Adobe Elements (*Est. $80), but are powerful enough to handle basic needs, with a few additional tricks such as a brush that lets you retouch just part of an image. Other pluses include sophisticated web integration and even a basic movie editor. Picasa runs under current and recent versions of the Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.

Google Picasa 3.6 is the most recent version. Most reviews we found cover Google Picasa 3.5, but differences are so small -- mainly bug fixes and improvements in how certain features work -- that the opinions offered are still valid. The best can be found at PCMag.com, Download.com and Macworld. PC Pro, a U.K.-based publication, also reviews the app in some detail.