Guess what? Google is willing to store and organize all of your digital photos and videos for free.
It’s a new online photo service launched by Google — the latest example of Google’s desire to “wrap its tentacles around virtually every part of people’s lives,” according to the AP.
But it could be a very good marketing move for Google, which promises unlimited storage of all photos up to 16 megapixels and high-definition video up to 1080p.
“The service, called Google Photos, will be available as an app on Android and Apple devices, and on a website, http://photos.google.com,” explains AOL. “It’s a variation of the photo-management tool on Google Plus, a social networking service that has struggled to compete against Facebook since its 2011 debut.”
“There has been a renaissance in the thinking of what Google Plus is for,” said Bradley Horowitz, Google’s vice president of photos and streams.
Horowitz predicts Google Photos will free people from the hassles of managing picture and video libraries, as Google’s Gmail service has eased the burden of sifting through email boxes with its larger storage capabilities and a powerful search engine.
“Google Photos is importing technology from Google Plus to automatically sort images into common bundles tied together by a vacation destination, activity, or even species of animal,” adds the report. “Other tools will automatically create slideshows and albums accompanied by music.”
Can Google entice people away from other services that have been around for a while? We’re talking about services like Apple’s photo service, or Yahoo’s Flickr which gives one terabyte of photo storage for free (which equals about five photos per day for 60 years).
Google — under siege by competitors on every side — wants to stay relevant. This new photo service is just one more gambit in the company’s bid to keep people doing more than checking out the Google doodle of the day.
