I love Google. At the bottom of a recent Google search up pops a promo for Picasa. It said:
You can find any image you want on the Web. How about on your own computer?
Albums. Editing. Printing. Sharing.
Try Picasa, Google’s new photo organizer.
Free Download!
Now I have to tell you, it looked good when I hit the product features page.
Guess what … unless you are better than me, without downloading the product there is no purchase information. Google bought them out for sure back in July (boy I hope they disclosed the acquistion correctly in their SEC filings). The customer testimonials definately say “I bought Picasa” but nowhere can I find a price.
This is one of my pet peeves about software and things on the net. Don’t tell me “free download” unless you also tell me how long I can use it for, is it unrestricted in functionality? how freeking much does it cost?
Our scripts cost nothing in most cases, other than your thanks and a donation (well actually both thanks and donations are fully optional). Our advanced scripts do cost a paltry sum, but it says so! Shoot, Franki even put the price in bold. Cannot Google have enough class to say what it costs? Hello is certainly free … not just to download. Kodak EZ Share was free when I used it last (but this is at the bottom now: “*Free trial with optional upgrade, compatible with WINDOWS OS only.” Geez fine print everywhere you go. To Kodak’s credit, it says $7.95 for the CD version clearly at the bottom of the first page. Something I never found on the Picasa site. Fortunately I much prefer to use Irfanview or Paint Shop Pro most of the time) EZ Share and Picasa look kind of similiar. I was going to buy some Google Stock, but until they fix this issue, I am holding back 🙂
I think Hello may be a light version of the thing. Nothing explains that, but the contact them form asks if you own “the full version” or “Hello”.
I emailed them (without a return address … well actually I used press@google.com but I don’t want a response, I want them to state the price so I can make an informed decision. For now my informed decision is pass.
