Picasa Web Integrates with Picnik

Picasa Web Albums added an option that lets you to edit photos in Picnik, the online photo editor acquired by Google in the March. After clicking on the "Edit" button, Picasa Web Albums uploads the photo to the Picnik and opens Picnik in a pop-up box.

Picnik is still a Flash application and it doesn't load quickly, so you have to wait at least for 10 seconds until you can use it. The online photo editor doesn't have all the features that are been available in Picasa, but there's an useful "auto-fix" option similar to the "I'm feeling lucky" button from Picasa, you can crop the photos, repair red-eye flaws, remove color casts automatically and fix exposure.

The nice thing is that you no longer have to sign in to Picnik and that the changes can be saved to the Picasa Web Albums after you click "save to my album", but that's nothing new. Flickr has been offering a similar feature since 2007.

"Picnik's rich editing tools are now integrated into the Picasa Web Albums allowing you to experience them without ever having to leave your account. As long as you're using Picasa in one of the Picnik supported languages, just click 'edit' from the edit drop down menu or from the new handy Picnik icon. Then, Picnik away by applying an effect, adding a sticker, or exploring your own creative path with the advanced tools. When you are done editing your photo, save back to your album by either replacing the existing image or making a new copy," suggests Google.

I expect that Picnik will be rewritten as an HTML5 application, so that it can have a better performance and then properly integrate with Picasa Web Albums. Instead of opening the editor in separate box, Picasa Web Albums should let you edit the photo in place.