Dave's Favorites: Share Your Photos With Hello

Sharing your digital pictures with friends and family can be something of a hassle. Copying images to CD is time consuming, and sending them by e-mail can be confusing. My dad, for instance, is new to computers and doesn't appreciate having to resize photos so they'll "fit" in e-mail. I recently discovered Hello, a terrific alternative to both of those options.

Hello is a free instant messaging and picture sharing tool from the same folks who make the Picasa photo organizer. After a few of your buddies sign up for Hello, they'll appear as Friends in the program's main screen. Just click on a Friend and start chatting. Or click the Send Pictures button to shoot pictures from your own computer to any of your correspondents. You can send one or more pictures to an individual, or blast them to several people at once.

And it gets better. Hello makes it easy to chat about your pictures, because all the images you and your Friends are sharing appear as a filmstrip on screen. Click a picture and type a message; your buddy sees the picture and text together, so you can explain your vacation pictures, for instance, in an online chat.

Hello is brilliantly designed. I needed no help getting up and running, and I was sharing pictures and chatting just minutes after installing it.