Google's Picasa 3.5 Gains Face Recognition FeaturesGoogle's Picasa 3.5 Gains Face Recognition Features

Google recently made a new version of Picasa available for desktop computers. Picasa 3.5 adds a nifty new feature in that it can group together collections of pictures based on the faces in them.Google first introduced the name tags feature for the Web-based version of Picasa. Now, it brings the same feature to the desktop with Picasa 3.5.

After users download and install the software, it will begin scanning images for faces upon launch. It will create groupings of images that have similar faces and saves them into a new folder. You can then choose to name the folder, thereby naming the person and tagging all the photos in that particular folder.

Users can choose to sync faces with their Google contacts, which will pull up images and add them to contact data.

Picasa 3.5 will also automatically add pictures of known people to the folders that are already created for them. So, if you add pix of your Aunt Ginny, Picasa 3.5 will recognize her when you import the pictures and place them in the folder with other pictures of her. If the software isn't quite sure who it's looking at, it will add a question mark so you're sure to see it and add the right data.

Picasa 3.5 also works seamlessly with Picasa Web Albums, and users can sync information back and forth, including name tags.

Picasa 3.5 now has Google Maps support built in, so it is easier for end users to tag location information to photos. Google explains, "Simply select pictures, click the Places panel, search or surf to a place, and drop a pin in the right place on the map. Once you've added geo tags, you can select a group of photos and see where they were all taken."

Last, the software now has an updated import user interface.

Picasa 3.5 works on both Apple and Microsoft computers and is a free download.