Picasa 3.5, the latest version of Google’s free photo software, has just been slapped up online for download. That extra 0.5 on the end adds a great new feature, face recognition, just like iLife 09, but there’s a lots more besides.
Mug recognition skills have been available on the online version of Picasa for a while, but now the tech’s been baked into the Picasa 3.5 desktop app for PC and Mac.
When you fire up Picasa 3.5, it’ll begin scanning all your snaps and gathering up groups of similar looking people for you to add a name to, and if you do it while signed into Google, you can connect your contact too for auto-complete zippiness. You can also download your web Picasa name tags to speed things up.
Once you’ve done that, it’ll tag new shots with that guy or gal automatically, and even let you filter for snaps with the same two people in.
That’s not all Picasa 3.5 does, as there’s now integrated Google Maps for geotagging without the need to run Google Earth at the same time, plus an improved tag pane and import processes.
Picasa 3.5 is out now to download, and for any iLife 09 owners worrying about duplication, don’t worry, it won’t mess with your iPhoto library.
