Google goes snap-happy with latest buy

Google on Tuesday announced the acquisition of Picasa, a digital photo management company based in Pasadena, California.

Picasa announced a technology partnership with Google's Blogger service in May, with the goal of enhancing photo-publishing features of Blogger. But the two companies have not announced any product integration following the deal. Google said services to Picasa customers would continue uninterrupted.

Google did not announce financial terms of the deal.

Several start-ups have begun offering photo-sharing services based on the peer-to-peer technology popularised by Napster. Digital photo sharing companies like Picasa are projecting file sharing will be a better way to edit and circulate large numbers of photos.

Google got into the blogging business last year, when it acquired Pyra Labs, creator of the Blogger service. Now the company hopes Picasa will help boost Blogger.

"Picasa enables users to easily manage and share digital photographs, and its technologies complement Google's ongoing mission to organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," said a statement from Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's vice president of product management. "Picasa is an innovator in the field of digital photography, and we're excited that the Picasa team is joining Google."