With Picasa, there is another freeware I like and it is Pixvue. I like it because you add description within the photo (IPTC) very easily and for retrieving/organising photos you simply use Windows Explorer.
http://www.pixvue.com

I use IMATCH from http://www.photools.com which is a shareware but Pixvue is a lot more user friendly.

Olly