Task #5: Photo Sharing

What tags were assigned to the picture I selected?
There were no tags assigned to the picture. In fact most of the pictures I looked at did not have any tags. This led me to think that I must be looking in the wrong place for the tags. (I kept clicking on 'Tags' on the right side of the screen.) I eventually did an entirely different search and sure enough found other pictures that had numerous tags.

What did I think of Picasa?
This seems like it might be a useful tool for someone wanting to create a "digital photo album" that can be shared. I especially imagine that the editing tools could be very useful.

Will I continue to use this application?
This does not seem like something that I will spend much time on - in the immediate future anyways. I don't currently feel a need to share photo albums on-line, and, must confess to still having some reservations about what I really want to be accessible to anyone using the Internet.

I know it is stated that you can "choose to make your pictures public or private", but have a hard time believing there's not someone out there with the ability to access whatever they are determined to access. It's not that I feel I have anything to hide, rather that I don't like the idea of possibly not having full control over what my pictures (or anything else) might be used for.

Other Comments
1. I was rather surprised when I first signed up for my Picasa account that there were already pictures in my 'Album' . Upon inspection I discovered that these were all pictures that I had looked at (from my own computer) while I was choosing something to put on my blog. Even pictures that I had never added to my blog - ones I had merely enlarged to get a better look at while I was strolling through my pics - these were also in my Picasa Album!? I think this realization has added to my concerns about what I might inadvertantly make public domain.

2. I did not find the Search function in Picasa to be all that helpful. There are so many pictures that can come up with any basic search that 'flipping through them' is very time consuming. I tried using multiple search terms, quotations, etc. but still didn't find it as helpful as it might be with an advanced search function that would allow me to rule out things that I don't want. For example, I was looking for a picture of some bluejays - but wanted the birds not the baseball team.

3. I found it frustrating that once I clicked away from a picture I liked (or did another search) there was no easy way to re-visit the previous picture. Using the Help feature I learned that I could add a tag to a picture by "clicking on the 'add tag' icon on the right side of the page", but that option doesn't seem to be there. Help also referred to the ability to "star" photos and then call up your list of starred photos, as well as the use of a "Photo Tray located in the lower-left corner of Picasa" - I couldn't find either of these tools either. Obviously I am missing a step somewhere - but, these challenges have certainly affected my opinion about the usefullness of this website for me.