I've fixed many applications by completely removing and
re-installing. Sometimes things go wrong in the installation process,
especially if you have PPAs and many third party repos (as I do). When
Ubuntu does an upgrade it may not be able to complete it and leave some
parts upgraded and other parts not. By removing an application you can allow
the upgrade process to complete and restore a level playing field of sorts.

Picasa is not a native Linux application. It has been ported over courtesy
of Google. I personally would not use it because Digikam is so much better
and faster, but that is up to the individual user. There are many reasons
for it to crash including the source, version number, memory (it is a
resource hog) and conflicts.

Below is a link to a tutorial on how to install Picasa 3.5 the latest
version in Ubuntu. It involves installing 3.0 in Ubuntu, adding the
repository to your sources.list and then installing 3.5 in Wine. Then
copying the files from Wine to the root directory. I don't use Picasa or
Wine, but it sounds like fun to try.

www.omgubuntu.co.uk/.../...a-35-linux-install.html