I'm in the midst of trialling some photo management software. For me, the major contenders are Picasa from Google and Photoshop Album / Photoshop Elements from Adobe. Photoshop Album is currently available as a commercial version or a free Starter Edition. Whilst Adobe gives a comparison between the Photoshop Album Starter Edition and Photoshop Elements, it doesn't give one between Photoshop Album and Photoshop Album SE. I assume the commercial version gives more 'Create' features such as Video CD's and PDF books.

Fortunately I've found this great article that discusses the pros and cons of these packages, Photo Search: Google Picasa 2 Vs. Adobe Photoshop Album 2. It's conclusion is that Photoshop Elements is the best, but I'll still be trialling each for myself.

I've found Picasa to have a far better interface, and I like that it gives me a level of folder management (albeit limited). But I don't like that it puts an .ini file in every folder (see Don't Litter). Elements comes with photo editing features that I don't need, but it has support for IPTC keywords. And then the Adobe selection of products all support hierarchical tagging that allows for better organising than Picasa. But Album SE doesn't allow editing of photos with an external applications, such as Photoshop and Picasa doesn't track versions of photos when using an external application.

Picasa is the easiest to use and has the most attractive interface. But because it lacks a few necessary features I think it will loose to one of Adobe's applications. But I'm hopeful that the next version might address my issues with it.