Via Google Blogoscoped:
"Google is shutting down Hello, Picasa’s photo sharing service which was part of the Picasa acquisition back in 2004."
Not sure what is the likelihood of Google auctioning off the domain Hello.com. From my experience, in today’s market and given the novelty value attached to the domain (owned/operated by Google) , the domain should fetch US$ 500K or more.
Source: Posted on TheConceptualist by Sahar Sahid -- Reprinted with permission -- May 9, 2008