You don't have to shell out for photo-editing software, or put up with the limited functions offered by the Paint program that comes with Windows. Picasa can transfer pictures from your digital camera, organise them on the hard disk and perform basic editing.

It will scan your hard drive(s), index all your images and group them into folders. Image support includes JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG, PSD, TIF and RAW, and it will also catalogue your movies (AVI, MPG, WMV, ASF, MOV).

Picasa can display images in a folder as a slideshow, and images can be imported directly from your digital camera. Version 2 adds the ability to caption images, and share them via email or P2P networks.

Other new features include options to print your photos via third-party companies (Ofoto, Walmart etc), and the ability to burn photos to CD and DVD.

As part of the growing Google empire it integrates directly with the company's new, oddly-named Hello photo sharing service.

This is a major v3 release and still a preview. New features include the ability to sync your images with your web album, retouch your images, grab a photo from your webcam and much more.