If you go to the Google homepage, chances are you will see a link to download their latest offering, Picasa - an image sorting and cataloging application which you download and install like any other desktop application.

While this may be Google's first real desktop application (after the desktop search bar) it does pose some interesting questions. Why a full blown desktop application? And why an image management application? After all, there are many other flavors of this software out there, from Microsoft to Adobe and all with similar functionality. So why give something away for free that everyone else charges for?

Well let's start by looking at the product. It is a relatively small application - the download is only a couple of Megs in size. And it is free, which is always good.

The application is very simple and intuitive and it goes to work scanning for images as soon as you launch it. You can select which directories to include or exclude in this discovery. It then organizes its findings into albums, which are essentially the directories in which the files are found, and gives you thumbnail views of all the images.

Further, you can begin to categorize your images by adding keywords.

So why would Google buy this company? Well, I do have a theory.

One thing I have noticed is that while Google can index text documents exceptionally well, it doesn't always do a good job indexing images. This is a problem that all search engines have to some degree. All the engine really has to go by was an image name. While some engines have found ways around simply going by name, in general that is the only way to index an image.

So what do you think the impact to search will be if you can now add keywords to the image, describing what it is, or what it's about? I would think it would make searching that much better. Do you see where I am going here?

Google purchased Picasa because of the potential for better indexing and searching.

So why would they give it away for free, rather than integrating it into the engine some how? I also have a theory about this.

The "next big thing" according to most industry experts, is desktop search - an application that runs on your computer and allows you to index the contents of it for easier searching. Of course, Google is into this, and has already announced a desktop search application due out later this year. But the shortcomings of web search are also probably shortcomings in desktop search - that is, files, such as images, which aren't easily searchable online likely aren't searchable to any degree of relevancy locally.

This is where Picasa comes in. With the ability to add keywords you are opening the images up to better indexing and searching capabilities.

Also, since applications like iTunes, Winamp, Realplayer (which Google recently partnered with) allow you to add similar tags to your music, more and more files become opened up to the indexing power of Google.

I hope it's becoming more clear now. With the combined efforts of Google's search technology, Real players music tagging, and Picasa's ability to add keywords, virtually everything you use on your computer is now indexable with Google's search capabilities. Therefore, a desktop search application shouldn't be too far off. I would think either just before or just after the IPO, or they could probably generate a lot of buzz by releasing it during the IPO, which could then have the potential for increasing share prices which would boost the company's value.

Of course this is all speculation, regarding when to release the application, but the signs are clear to me - desktop search is much closer than we think and it will be much more flexible than we are used to in a search application.