One problem with large photo collections is that it can become extremely difficult to find pictures of specific people.  If I wanted to dig up a picture of one of my college buddies, I’d have to spend quite a bit of time skimming through photos, hoping the correct one pops up.  But with Picasa, you can use the fantastic Face Detection feature to tag your friends.

Face Detection works similar to Facebook’s photo tagging feature, except Picasa will automatically show you a list of unnamed faces for you to tag.  Once you’ve given them a name, you can easily find that person again in the future.

Picasa will automatically scan your photo library for your friends’ faces.  To start tagging pictures, click the Unnamed entry under the People section (this will say Scanning if it’s still identifying faces).

The Unnamed People album will contain a huge list of faces.  If you know the person, simply type their name into the Add a name box and press enter.  You will then be able to create a contact for that person (which can be reused whenever tagging photos).  If you don’t know the person, simply click the X to ignore them.

After you’ve tagged a few pictures, Picasa will begin suggesting photo tags for you.  Look for the orange question mark (?) next to a person’s name, then you can click the green checkbox if the tag is correct or the red X if it is incorrect.  I must have an easily-guessable face, because Picasa guessed me correctly in every picture.

The more photos you tag, the better Picasa gets at guessing faces.

After your pictures are tagged, you can use the buttons under the tagged person’s name to create slideshows and movies from their pictures.  The recently-released Picasa 3.8 includes a new feature called “Face Movies” which makes a slideshow that revolves around a single person’s face.  If you’re making a video for a wedding or birthday, this would be a killer feature to utilize.

Now if only there was only a way to integrate tagged photos in Picasa with people on Facebook!  Picasa is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux.  [Download Picasa]

The post Tag Your Friends’ Faces in Picasa for Easy Photo Organization first appeared on Techerator.

YouTube recently joined this trend by launching an online video editor which follows the mentality “video editing should be fun and easy”.

Instead of installing large, complicated video editing software, YouTube’s video editor gives you quick access to the most-used editing tools, like combining videos you’ve uploaded, trimming videos, adding soundtracks, and instant publishing.

To access the new YouTube video editor, simply visit their TestTube site (this is where the YouTube team tests new software, take some time to check it out).  Click the Try it out link under Video Editor to get started.

The YouTube video editor is extremely straightforward and offers a simple drag-and-drop interface.  You can drag any videos you’ve uploaded to YouTube to the main timeline to combine them, and a separate timeline exists below the video timeline for adding audio tracks (with a large audio library supplied under the Audio tab).

To edit clips, simply click the scissors icon that appears over each clip and drag the beginning and end markers to your desired location.

The pros: YouTube’s video editor is very simple and I was able to use it intuitively without messing around with any configurations or settings.  I grabbed clips from a video I uploaded, edited them, and added an audio track in less than 5 minutes.

The cons: It’s limited.  Don’t expect to edit anything substantial with the video editor, mainly because you are limited to a paltry 7 video clips in the timeline. Although the editor is great for trimming and combining clips, you can’t do anything with speed, volume, or effects.

Verdict: The YouTube video editor will be perfect for anybody who enjoys posting clips to YouTube or creates media like podcasts.  It gives you simple controls to edit unwanted material from your videos, combine and re-order clips, and add a soundtrack.  Want to create a Star Wars fan film?  Then you’re going to want to find something much more substantial.  Was it “fun and easy” though?  Decidedly yes.

Oh, and you can check out my sweet made-in-5-minutes video below.

[via The Official YouTube Blog]

The post YouTube Launches Online Video Editor, Lets You Quickly Edit Videos Without Installing Software first appeared on Techerator.