Bye Bye iPhoto: Google Finally Releases Picasa for Mac

Google has finally released Picasa for Mac.

According to Google, Picasa for Mac brings all of the sharing and sync features of Picasa on Windows and Linux to Mac users. The software offers features including non-destructive editing, and the ability to keep track of photos anywhere on your hard drive, then automatically account for new images as you add them, something iPhoto doesn’t do.

Picasa for Mac launches in Google Lab, so it may be a little buggy. Although Google advises that it is available now, I wasn’t able to download it at the time of writing, with the button indicating it was available, but the download offering only the Picasa Web Albums uploader.

As someone who switched from 20 years on PC’s to Macs two years ago, Picasa has been one of the few things I’ve missed since making the move. iPhoto is ok, but I’ve never felt it was close to Picasa in features or usability. Whether I’ll switch full time to Picasa is a call I can only make once I get my hands on the download, but it’s something that wouldn’t be hard to do.

Last but not least: I broke the story exclusively last year when I managed to catch a Google employee on the spot at Macworld More than one person at the time said I was full of shit. To those people I simply say: told you so.

Here’s the official demo video for Picasa for Mac, and the download link can be found here.

UPDATE: If you’re having issues downloading it directly from Google, Download.com has a working copy here.

UPDATE 2: Installed and it’s everything I remembered it to be and more. Simpler and better range of image editing tools in particular. Now I just have to work out how to make it default for images, not just from the camera, but in applications as well, which can be an issue given how iPhoto is built into Apple apps.