The New Blogger NavBar and Google

I think I like it! So much so that I've actually replaced the custom Google site-search box with the new Blogger NavBar (which you will now see at the top of the site). It's reasonably unobtrusive and actually useful (for searching the site)—exactly what internet advertising should be. But then I've come to expect that from both Blogger and Google.

I was also very impressed with Google when, upon acquiring Picasa, the maker of my favourite free photo-sharing-chat program, Hello, they immediately started giving the $30 photo-organizing program away for free! Picasa may not be the very best photo-organizing program out there (as far as I can see, that honour still goes to Adobe Photoshop Album—also available in a quite-functional, very useful free starter edition), but it is certainly right up there among the best—and its integration with its companion photo-sharing-chat program, Hello, makes it even more useful! While it has not yet replaced Adobe Photoshop Album on my desktop, it has complemented it there and has replaced Photoshop Album Starter Edition on my laptop. If you have a digital camera, I highly recommend downloading and installing Picasa—at least to check it out. After all, why spend $50US on a photo-organizing program if you can get one that does much the same thing for free? It is wonderful that the biggest name in computer search is also such a good corporate citizen.

And if you're interested in photo-sharing and/or chatting with me through Hello, send me an e-mail (webmaster{at}ehewlett.net) with your name and Hello username, and I'll add you to my contact list.