Photo Index is a free image sharing photo organizer. It focuses on image tagging and cataloging and offers a clear & simple user friendly interface.

Pros: My Photo Index organizes photos and makes it easy to share them between family members & friends. It is easy to share through some of the prominent social networking sites. Facebook, Flickr, pic4u.co.il and My Photo Index Web share are the places you could share the pictures. The interface does any reduction in size after ascertaining your choices. Sharing through IM tools or any other web based application, including web based email such as Hotmail, Yahoo mail, Gmail, Web Forums, Blogs and more are possible. The application can help you hide private images from prying eyes, and let you easily share your images with family and friends. Privacy is managed through image encryption system, images are encrypted on disk with a password that can be set per image. Major photo file types including BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, TIFF as well as video formats like AVI are supported. Reading and converting of RAW camera images are also supported. The application has a clear and simple to use interface. Particular focus is on cataloguing it does that by letting the user create a range of tag words. Creation is easy, you can add explanation texts to each so that when in doubt, you could always check the context in which these tags are to be used. It allows image tagging with unlimited number of tags or nesting levels, and also supports fast searching mechanism. Built in image rating & sorting system adds another dimension to the structuring of photo catalog and later im searching and finding specific ones. The application supports simple import capabilities from local drives or network drives as well as from digital cameras or removable drive using WIA technology.

Cons: Major issue with sophisticated tagging schemes is that after the initial enthusiasm dies, very few can stick to tag pictures appropriately and elaborately enough. That would lead to missing photographs or difficult to find photographs.

Overall an easy to use application with sophisticated features this is definitely good for a 4 star rating.