When I click on photos, I am taken to my Google+ profile with photos from my circles and public photos. If you’re signed-out, the link still points to Picasa Web Albums. Earlier this year, there was a rumor that Picasa would be renamed to Google Photos.

Alex Chitu spotted this and noted you can still access Picasa at picasaweb.google.com.

In January of this year, Google replaced Google Reader with Photos when in the Gmail screen. Photos is not a main menu item when in web search, but it can be accessed via the “more” drop down menu.

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I was able to replicate the problem images by going to Google, searching for [gmail], clicking on the “more” option and selecting “Photos,” as you can see below:

After you click photos, you are presented with many images of women that are not fully pornographic, but most likely not safe for work. Here is an uncensored image:

The “Photos” option pulls back images from the Google Picasa photo sharing service, as opposed to the more prominent “Images” option, that finds images from all over the web,

My Google Image search settings are set to block images like this, but I guess those image preferences do not transfer over a Google “Photo” search.

To be honest, I never used the “Photo” option from the Google menu. I am not sure if it is even new, and I have an email out to Google to find out more information about that.

Google’s YouTube property will not be included in the company’s rebranding efforts, but other products beyond Picasa and Blogger could be.

We reached out to Google for more information, but the company told Search Engine Land it would not be commenting on the report.

The last time Google rebranded one of its existing and established properties (i.e., not a new or recent acquisition) was 2007, when Froogle became Google Product Search. At the time, Marissa Mayer talked about the branding and awareness challenges of running Froogle for close to five years:

We were a really young company, and I don’t think we really understood the burden of a new brand. I also think it was very hard to build awareness. Our product offering was very robust, but it will fare better with a Google Product Search name.

What remains to be seen is how closely the products will be tied into Google+ in the process of renaming.

But Wait … Isn’t Google Already Using “Google Blogs”?

Well, yes, they are. The home page for Google Blog Search already shows the exact name that’s being reported as Blogger’s future name.

So, if the report is accurate, it looks like Google Blog Search is going to need a new logo, at minimum.

Separately Google has set up a “people finder” for those still missing in Japan. It also offers a “crisis response” page with news, emergency resources and updates. You can also donate there directly to the Japanese Red Cross.

Eric Schmidt, chief executive, said a series of public disputes over privacy issues had caused the management team to review its procedures and the launch of new technologies. According to Google executives, facial recognition is one of the key topics of internal debate . . .

Facial recognition has the potential to be the next privacy flashpoint. Google already uses the technology in its Picasa photo sharing service. This lets users tag some of the people in their photos and then searches through other albums to suggest other pictures in which the same faces appear.

The article says the company declined to include the technology in Google Goggles. The use case here is obvious: take a picture of a person and bring up their social network profiles and any other associated online information.

In terms of the data revealed, this would effectively be the same as conducting a search through Google.com (or people search engines like WhitePages.com or People123) and finding the same information. But there’s something potentially unsettling and much more “creepy” about the ability to take a picture with a camera phone and instantaneously learn everything known online about a person.

Because of its position in the market Google is wise to be cautious. The company has many critics. Where a product launch or announcement by a smaller company might see some objections, a similar move by Google (or now Facebook) can launch “an international incident,” literally. Speaking of which there’s almost no way that facial recognition searching on mobile devices would fly in Europe and maybe Canada as well. The privacy outcry would be deafening.

While it’s good for Google to be cautious and mindful of privacy implications, in another sense it would be unfortunate if the company failed to bring tools and services to market for “political” reasons.

See Also: Sergey Brin On Google’s Wifi Data Collection: “We Screwed Up

Here is a picture:

We all know Google said they will be placing more ads in more places. So this is just the latest Google property to show ads.

Google had a Picasa Web Albums uploader and an iPhoto plugin for Mac users but never the application.

The Wired Blog has a nice walk through the of many features available in Picasa. Below I will also embed a video demonstration of Picasa for Mac.

As many of you know, I am a long time Mac user. I personally have been using iPhoto with Flickr. I plan on giving Picasa a try, since it won’t really impact my iPhoto or Flickr albums. I am particularly eager to try the name tagging feature, amongst other features – but I am sure it will take a lot to move me off Flickr and onto Picasa completely.

More coverage on this release can be found at Techmeme.

Postscript: A few hours later, I check out some of the live coverage of MacWorld and I see Apple has added tons of features, including the face recognition feature I was looking for in Picasa, to iPhoto. So maybe I won’t bother switching or testing Picasa.

Here’s a look at the two announcements:

Flickr’s “Mobile Makeover”

With visits to Flickr’s mobile site (m.flickr.com) up more than 50% in the past year, the mobile site now shares much of the same features and functionality that Flickr users are familiar with on the main site.

The Yahoo announcement trumpets the new video playback capabilities on Flickr mobile, but many users will be happier with the improved navigation. Your user home page (below left) sports quick links to see recent activity on your own photos, photos from your contacts, and the most interesting photos uploaded to Flickr. An individual photo page (below right) shows thumbnails of the adjacent photos in your account; a single tap navigates to that photo.

The video playback feature is available already for iPhone and iPod Touch users, and will be rolled out in the coming weeks for other devices that support streaming video.

For more, read Yahoo’s full announcement.

Google’s Picasa Upgrades

Google’s Picasa service is getting several upgrades:

• Sharing – Picasa users can now more easily see who they’ve shared photo albums with, and others can more easily see all the albums you’ve shared with them.
• “Sign-in required” albums – In addition to labeling photo albums as public or unlisted, a new option is “sign-in required.” This lets users share albums only with others who have a Picasa Web Albums account.
• Video playback – All videos that are 320 pixels or bigger will play back in higher-quality MPEG4 format.
• International name tags – The name tags tool is now available in 38 different languages.
• Automatic comment translation
• Improved gallery page design

For more, read the full announcement.

Picasa users will be able to label their photos with names. Google will then start to automatically suggest other photos that look similar to the ones you already named.

Mike Horowitz, Google’s Picasa product manager told News.com:

Once you’ve started naming people, we’ll start suggesting names for you based on similarity. The process of naming people is really addictive and tremendously fun.

Google’s Picasa 3.0 beta will have this feature and it is expected to launch at 3pm (EST) today. Stephen Shankland has provided a detailed review of the program, including the accuracy of the facial recognition features.

Currently Google gives you 1GB of free space for Picasa and 2.8GB of free space for Gmail. You can now buy additional space, and Google hopes to expand this service to their other services, such as Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

The current plans are: 6GB for $20.00 per year, 25GB for $75.00 per year, 100GB $250.00 per year, and 250 GB $500.00 per year.

You can purchase the additional storage over here, and you can check your current storage usage at this page. Google Blogoscoped has screen captures of what it looks like to have the premium storage, and Google Operating System shows how to pay for that storage. There is additional information on this FAQ page.

In related news, Microsoft launched their beta storage service named Live SkyDrive. Live SkyDrive allows you to store files online privately, to share with friends or to share publicly. With the launch, Microsoft added a new upgraded look and feel a new feature named “Also on SkyDrive,” thumbnail images so you can better see your files, a drag and drop feature for your files and a way to embed your files anywhere.

Michael Arrington reviews both Google and Microsoft storage solutions, saying, “Both fell flat.”