Picasa's Incredible New Face-Finding Tool

Picasa just added a new face-tagging tool that's similar to Facebook's, but holy crap is it powerful. It only works on my web albums right now, but I was able to tag over 300 people in 200 photos in less than ten minutes. (Not yet using Picasa for your web albums? Here's why you should.) That's because the feature is smart enough to group pictures of the same individual from multiple photos so you can label them all at once. (Plus, it uses your gmail address book to help you with labeling.)

It's pretty impressive; photos in profile and of people wearing hats and shades were picked out no problem, and for the ones that Picasa couldn't nail down, they provided me with three guesses, one of which was usually right. Sure, there are some miscues, misidentifications, etc., but it's pretty easy to set straight, and it's a ton easier than manually tagging. More importantly, you can now search your web albums for specific folks, which in turn allows you to send copies of photos to people who are in them; remember who's who at certain events; and generally enjoy your photos more. Happy tagging! (Now, Picasa, about adding that feature to your desktop version--)