Google Universe @ 2.0

  This week's assignment was to check out Google products. 
The first part of the assignment is to "Choose one or two products that interest you, and click on them to find out more."  The first time I tried to look at a product that I was not already at least semi-familiar with I hit a road block in that I could not download the application.  However, my thanks to whoever is responsible, because when I tried again I was able to download the desired app.  My choice - "Picasa".

I realize that online photo albums are nothing new.  I just have never used one for myself before.  Oh sure I have looked at others when invited to do so, but it is something I just never saw the need for.  I am not big on putting personal photos and information into cyberspace.  It's a security thing, I guess. 

One of the first things I looked for with Picasa was their privacy settings.  Once I learned how easy it is to hide pictures and albums and that I had a choice of password protection, security became less of a concern. 
And if you think about it, why would I take up valuable storage space on my computer when I can store my photos online.   I can have  1GB of storage free, images can be uploaded and manipulated, and I can purchase extra storage space, admittedly up to  $500 a year to bump up the storage space to 400 times the size of the free service.  I'm not sure I would go that far, but certainly being able to manipulate and store photos will be an asset.

I would recommend that anyone interested in this option should include Google's Picasa on their list to check out.