Google shutters Picasa to focus on Google Photos

Google announced on Thursday it's shuttering Picasa, the dated photo organizer it purchased in 2004, to focus on Google Photos.

"After much thought and consideration, we've decided to retire Picasa over the coming months in order to focus entirely on a single photo service in Google Photos," Google wrote on its blog. "We believe we can create a much better experience by focusing on one service that provides more functionality and works across mobile and desktop, rather than divide our efforts across two different products."

Google has made sure you won't lose your Picasa photos. You simply sign into Google Photos with your account information, and your uploads from Picasa will be waiting.

As of March 15, Google will no longer be supporting the Picasa desktop application. It will continue to work following, but Google won't be providing any updates for the software. Google will shudder web albums on May 1.

Google launched Google Photos in May 2015, with a focus on uploading photos from mobile. It makes sense, as Picasa was heavily desktop-oriented.