Who better to help you embrace your inner leprechaun than Picnik? Turn yourself the color of the Emerald Isle itself, surround yourself with whimsical stickers, and festoon yourself with four-leaf clover! Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, and slaínte!

And all this leads us to today’s exciting news: we’ve just been acquired by Google! What does this mean for Picnik? It means we can think BIG. Google processes petabytes of data every day, and with their worldwide infrastructure and world-class team, it is truly the best home we could have found. Under the Google roof we’ll reach more people than ever before, impacting more lives and making more photos more awesome.

What does this mean for you Picnikers? Nothing is changing right away, but Picnik now has more potential than ever before. The team that built Picnik from the grass up will continue making advanced and powerful photo-editing easier, more intuitive and more fun, so stay tuned to hear about all the cool new stuff we’re working on. We want to thank you all for being great users, pushing us to grow and do big things. So thank you all for your continued support, and Happy Picniking!

- Mike, Darrin, Jonathan, Peter, Brian, Justin, Virginia, Steve, Charlie, Brenda, Michael, Ali, Sonia, Sarah, Lisa, Chelsea, Kelcey, Maria, Annie Laurie, Pearl, Michael B and Tim

FAQ

1. What is Picnik?
Picnik is a fast, fun, easy to use and powerful set of photo editing tools for editing, sharing and printing images using any internet browser on any computer platform. Picnik is integrated with a wide variety of websites like Picasa Web Albums, Facebook, Flickr, Yahoo! Mail and Photobucket. With Picnik, you can edit your photos wherever they are from wherever you are.

2. What happens to my Picnik account and settings?
Your Picnik account and settings will stay the same. To view, change or delete your Picnik account and settings, go here.

3. Do I have to log into Google to use Picnik?
No, you don’t need a Google account to use Picnik. Picnik is free to use and registration is not required, although to make Picnik even better, we encourage you to create an account here.

4. Will I still be able to access other social networking and photo storage sites from Picnik, or access Picnik from those social networking and photo storage sites?
Yes!

5. Will Picnik still offer feedback support?
Absolutely!

6. What will happen to Easy Listening Thursday (ELT)?
We plan on sitting back, relaxing, and letting the soothing sounds of ELT guide us into a Thursday evening in our new Google Seattle offices.

7. What happens to Team Picnik?
Team Picnik will continue working on Picnik from Google’s Seattle offices.

It comes from Gísli Hjálmar, an Icelandic law student working as a technician and one of Flickr’s more prolific Picnikers. To celebrate, and to show him off a bit, we asked him a little bit about himself.

He became interested in photography when he was around 19, but then didn’t take pictures for nearly 20 years before starting up again three years ago.

Two years ago he discovered Picnik, and now does most of his photo editing with us (even though he has Photoshop on his computer). His favorite part of Picnik? The Seasonal Effects! How does he feel about his photo being Picnik’s billionth edited photo? He’s “very happy” and for good reason: Gísli now has a lifetime subscription to Picnik Premium!

Of all the thousands of photos being edited Wednesday morning, we’re so happy that the person with the billionth photo is such an interesting guy, an enthusiastic photographer and a good Picniker! It makes us think about all the millions of interesting people out there with their squillions of interesting pictures using Picnik all the time, and we can’t wait to see what the next billion brings. Thank you all and happy Picniking!

To put this into perspective:

One billion seconds: nearly 32 years
One billion minutes ago: Trajan was Emperor of Rome
One billion days ago: Lucy was still alive and well
One billion edits ago: it was October 2007!

To celebrate this HUGE number, Picnik Premium is free for everyone today! So enjoy those Effects, admire all that’s Advanced and go nuts with Seasonal from 9 a.m. today until 9 a.m. tomorrow, February 4th, Seattle time (PST)!

Time’s up! Thank’s so much everyone for helping to make this possible, and many happy Picniking returns!

Have a look at the entries, and to enter your own best of 2009 Picniked photo, set up a Flickr account and join the Flickr Picnikers group!

Brandi calls herself a “craftepreneur,” a mix between crafter, artist, photographer and businesswoman. She owns and manages a gallery inside The Piazza at 2nd and Hancock Streets, she teaches classes on digital organization and basic photo editing, she does custom scrapbooks, refinishes and repurposes household furniture and housewares and in her free time still enjoys taking pictures and being crafty! She loves her family, travel, roller skating, board games and cheese. She’s found that with growth and exploration come setbacks and mistakes, but has also found that that’s what life is all about, and that living in the moment, learning from every experience is what makes life so wonderful. And it brought her to Philly, which she loves.

But yes, she misses the ocean.

Picnik: When did you hear about Picnik, and when was that?

Brandi: I heard about Picnik in the late fall of 2008, through Smug Mug. As a photographer, Smug Mug has not only been an amazing tool for storing and showcasing my pictures – It helped me find YOU.

How has Picnik changed your life?

Picnik changed my life by allowing me to “layer” several creative aspects of myself into my art/photography. The reason Picnik changed my life more than any Photoshop or desktop software ever could is that Picnik is web based, real time and easily accessible. With the Picnik/SmugMug combination, I can be working on projects at home or at the gallery without having to lug my computer around from place to place. Most importantly it leaves me very little delay when getting back to customers. I wouldn’t ever want to say “I’ll have to get back to you – that’s on my computer at home”. I am a right here, right now kind of person… As all service-driven businesses should aim to be! I do wish I could pay for some additional storage in my history tab – I have well over 999 pieces of art that I have created on Picnik and as I keep creating – I upload them to client galleries online, however It is awesome to have them at my fingertips in Picnik. Is that in the future? Is there a desktop version in the works?

Rocky or The Philadelphia Story?

Rocky. hands down. And, P.S. it’s the only statue that has people posing with it at 3 and 4 in the AM!

You describe yourself as an artist. Did photography lead you to art, or has art led you to photography?

The term artist, to me, represents someone who can take something (paint, chords, educational material, dance moves, sandwich ingredients) and turn it in to something that is meaningful for someone else. Something that becomes open to interpretation. Something that makes a difference by enriching our own lives and the lives of others.

What do you use to shoot with?

I shoot with a Nikon D90 DSLR and a Canon G9 for everyday use. There are a couple of things that most any/all of my friends know about me: I always have a camera and I LOVE cheese, olives and peanut butter. Not together, silly!

Your illustrations evidence the fun that’s to be had experimenting in Picnik and layering effects, text, shapes, etc. How long do you usually spend on a piece?

Picnik has limitless possibilities with regards to creation of artwork – I normally spend between 10 and 30 minutes on a piece of work – And then a couple of days making new versions and revisions based on clients suggestions. 

Mannequin or Witness?

Mannequin.

What did you like most about Picnik when you first started using it, and what do you like most about it now?

The first thing I liked about Picnik was the catch phrases that you Picnikers use when the program is loading. Clever – It tuned me in and made me want more! Laying Blanket, Watering Grass. Genius. The thing I like most about it now….the ability to lock layers, add effects and not make changes – Having custom artwork that CANNOT be duplicated is priceless to my business and a value to my clients unlike any other. You wouldn’t want to show up at a cocktail party wearing the same dress as your sister in law, right? Well, I wouldn’t want to go to someone’s home and see the same piece of art on the wall :) {minor explanation required – I do offer poster & archival prints of my non- custom work. Work that I create on my own.}

If anything on Picnik could be named after you, what would it be?

If I could have something named after me on Picnik – It would Posterize. I would call it Brandify. This is a term that my clients tend to use when sending me a picture to make art out of…they just say “Hey, can you Brandify this”. It feels good.

Where’s the best place to get a cheesesteak in Philly?

The best cheesesteak for me, can be found on South Street at Jim’s Steaks.  Order it Wit. Take your cholesterol meds later!

If you have a Twitter account, and statistically speaking, you do, follow us @Picnik for all the latest feature updates, office shenanigans, promos and freebies, delivered instantly to your timeline.

And on Facebook, join the rest of our 173,000-plus fans for all those updates and the fun pictures that we make for just all you Facebookers too!

And don’t forget! If you have any questions or need any help, don’t hesitate to email our intrepid feedbackers at feedback@picnik.com! And of course we always read the comments here on the blog, too. Happy Picniking!

Also, make sure you catch Picnik CMO and Bullhorn (and mom) Lisa Conquergood on a panel discussion talking about “Moms as Memory Keepers” on Friday at 1:00 pm with Jef Holove of Eye-Fi, Jennifer Smiczek of The Print Shop, Terence Swee of muvee, Neil Yarian of Pandigital, Susan Write of Smilebox and Suzanne Kantra of Techlicious.com moderating.

Like most things on the internet, there’s not much about Picnik that can really be thought of as old, exactly. But boy do we have new stuff to ring in the new year! We’ve spent all of 2009 churning out new features and functionality to make Picnik even awesomer with Touch-ups, Show, masses of seasonal effects, new shapes and Stickers, new Effects, even new Team Picnik members! So much new for the New Year!

With all this exciting new stuff, Picnik’s at risk of getting a little big, a little heavy, a little rotund. Nearly doubling the amount of features on a site is bound to have an effect on the waistline, but we mustn’t let the holiday excess stay permanent! So our resolution for the new year is to keep Picnik trim, in shape and moving briskly despite all the updates!

What about all you Picnikers? What would you like to see in Picnik in the new year? Let us know! And in the mean time, all of us at Team Picnik wish all of you a very happy and healthy new year!