Google Optimizes Picasa for iPhone

Google has introduced specific support for its online photo gallery service Picasa on the iPhone.

The company has completely redesigned and optimized Picasa's mobile interface for the iPhone. Images are proportioned to fit the device's screen, and control buttons have been fixed in order to be easier to navigate with an iPhone user's fingers.

Google has also introduced an iPhone-only slideshow feature that automatically flips through a user's favorite photo albums.

Announcing the new iPhone support, Google blogger (and user experience designer) Karen Groenink, writes: "If you've ever picked up an iPhone, you know that it's great for showing off digital photos. iPhones have a high-resolution screen that's big, bright, and crisp, and a first-class web browser that supports complex web technologies like AJAX. Put these two together, and it's probably fair to say that Apple's iPhone offers one of the best platforms for experiencing the mobile version of Picasa Web Albums."

This news follows Google's recent move to launch a new web portal to its services cunningly re-designed to make its many services more easily available to iPhone users through a re-designed interface for the device.

iPhone users simply need to navigate to Google's site (www.google.com) using the Safari browser of the iPhone (and iPod touch) will find a navigation bar that lets them switch between Google services.