I use PicasaWeb for photo sharing. Today I uploaded a photo that was rather dark and reddish in colour temperature. I thought about modifying it in the Gimp (a desktop image editor), but then I recalled that PicasaWeb offered editing through a web service, Picnik, that Google bought last year. I hadn't tried it yet, so I clicked the obvious edit button and and was initially a bit put off when it didn't work in Firefox. Fine, I still want to try it, so I went to Chrome. This time, I saw a pretty splash screen while it loaded. Then I was put a little more off as I came to a busy (but beautiful) home page that wanted me to register or log in. If Google acquired it over a year ago, why does it still not recognise? Why do I need create a separate account? I googled around, and discovered that apparently Google is planning to fix that, but hasn't gotten around to it. Alright, whatever. Let's hope there aren't any issues when they finally get to it and, oops, my e-mail address is already in use. So, I create it, and get logged in and... I'm still at the home page, and I don't know how to pick the photo from PicasaWeb from here. Ugh. OK, close the frame and go to my photo and click edit again and...
It was so wonderful. The image editor was simple, smooth, and fast. It used the photographic term 'exposure' when I wanted to increase the 'brightness' of the photo, which will baffle some, but I'm fine with that. Their Auto-fix, a presumptuous name, as though there could be anything wrong with my work! :O, fixed the colour temperature easily. Then I chose to save it back to my album (it knew of my album :D), and even asked if I wanted to create a new copy or replace my old one! :D
So, the integration with Google's account system is sorely lacking, but I can see why Google bought it, and the integration with PicasaWeb (once I got an account) seems great. I approve.
See the amazing difference! Be amazed by my photobombing mouse cursor! I don't even use a mouse!
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