Google is updating its Picasa online photo management service to include ‘web albums‘. The new features will enable users to share their pictures with other people on the Internet. The new functions bring Picasa into line with the highly successful Flickr photo sharing and community site owned by Yahoo!.Under the new scheme, Picasa users will still be able to upload, manage and store their digital images in the same way as ever. However, they will now be able to upload the pictures into the web albums that will make them available to others. By the same token it is possible to download an entire album of photos from another person directly into Picasa with just a few clicks.

Picasa Web Albums come with 250MB of free storage. A subscription of $25.00 per year will get you an extra 6GB of storage - room to post and share approximately 25,000 photos.

In order to use the new features, users will need a new version of Picasa. At the moment, the testing is limited but you can apply for an ‘invitation’ to join the pilot programme at the Picasa test site.