Ultimate way to use Picasa in a home network

Since there does not seem to be any updates at all to how Picasa works from Google, I would like to suggest to switch to digiKam instead.

It is open source, well maintained and you can choose to make it store its database files inside the actual photo folder. It also supports face recognition now as well, which was something I have been searching for in a Picasa alternative.

I think that it still will be a bad idea to modify the database files from several computers at once, but that is no difference from a modified Picasa installation.

update: If you have a server or NAS at home where you can run MySQL, digiKam can store its database there instead.

PicasaStarter seems to be the only decent application addressing this major shortcoming of Picasa. Why Google won't address server/network abilities for Picasa is beyond me.

PicasaStarter is a small application that provides a solution for a number of shortcomings of Google's Picasa, the image organisation and editing application.

Picasa without PicasaStarter has the following limitations:

Picasa doesn't allow the database and pictures to be shared among different users (not on the same computer, not in a network).

By default, Picasa puts the Picasa database in the user's private Application Data folder which is on the C: drive.

You can only use/have one database per user, choosing between multiple databases is not possible.

PicasaStarter enhances Picasa and adds the following features:

You can create any number of Picasa databases and sets of pictures. This allows you to have separate pictures /database sets for different projects or uses. For instance separate databases for vacations, hobbies, and jobs.

Databases can be created in any location, including network drives, and can be shared by multiple computers and users.

It is very easy to create a portable solution where the pictures and database are on a portable or USB drive. The only thing that must be installed on the computer is Picasa itself. This makes it possible to show and work with your pictures on any computer.

You can create Shortcuts on your Desktop to start Picasa with each database. This gives one step access to any photo / database set.

Check this https://sites.google.com/site/picasastartersite/

or this

http://www.liquidstate.net/blog/technology/picasa-with-multiple-pcs/

Dimitrios Greece