Google Acquires Picasa

Google Acquires Picasa—and with it, Hello. I bought Picasa’s flagship photo management program last month in a successful attempt to find the equivalent to iPhoto for a Windows XP box. After using it for a few days, I returned to the site to look for a way to buy stock in the company. Hello combines instant messaging with photo blogging and private photo sharing. Just as the purchase of Pyra/Blogger before it, there is more to this Google investment than we’re seeing on the face of it.