Both are free. Picasa is a photo-organizing and editing tool that works with Hello which is a tool to store and upload photos to a blog and share pictures with friends. They are super easy to use and did I mention - free...such a deal. Picasa 2 just came out and has some enhancements to photo editing capabilities.
They are superior to anything else I've seen in this area. Hello allows unlimited picture uploads to the web. You get to store all the pictures you want, no spam emails, no requests for you to upgrade to a paid subscription, no problems at all.
I'm guessing these programs and services are free because Google sees value in enhancing the content of the web (in this case with personal photographs...this would be similar to the business plan for Blogger being free). Of course not every picture is going to tell a story, or be worth a 1000 words (I think some of mine might be worth just a letter or two). But there will be enough quality, or interesting, web content developed using these tools that Google will generate a revenue stream from the Ad's By Google that you see in soooo many web places these days.
Picasa
Hello
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