If you have an iPhone or any of the many other GPS enabled smartphones that adds location data to photos and you also use a Windows based PC, you've probably been a bit envious of the face recognition and map positioning Apple's iPhone '09 gives Mac users. Well, you can stop being envious. Google has a Windows alternative for you and it is free...

Picasa Gets Face Recognition, Built-in Google Maps (Technologizer.com)

As the article notes, Google's web-based Picasa has had face recognition for a while. But, this is new for the client side. I haven't had a chance to take a look at its face recognition feature since the indexing process takes a while and is not finished yet on my Mac. However, I checked out its place (mapping) feature and it works great. In fact, I had forgotten that the T-Mobile G1 that I owned briefly last year embedded its GPS data in its photos just like the iPhone and Picasa showed me where the G1 phones I saved were taken last year. Very nice!

I'm looking forward to installing the Windows version on my netbook to give it whirl there.

BTW: Mac users need not feel left out. There is a Mac version too. In fact, that's what I downloaded and tested myself.