Google Photos is a photo sharing and storage service developed by Google. It was announced in May 2015 and out of Google, the company's social network.
Google Photos gives users free, unlimited storage for photos up to 16 megapixels and videos up to 1080p resolution. The service automatically analyzes photos, identifying various visual features and subjects. Users can search for anything in photos, with services that return results from three main categories: People, Places, and Things. Google Photos recognizes faces, grouping similar ones simultaneously; geographical landmarks (such as the Eiffel Tower); and course material, including birthdays, buildings, animals, food, and more.
Different forms of machine learning in Photo services allow the recognition of photo content, automatically generating albums, turning similar photos into fast videos, bringing past memories of significant time, and improving the quality of photos and videos. In May 2017, Google announced several updates to Google Photos, including reminders for and shared suggested photos, shared photo library between two users, and physical albums, with Photos automatically suggesting collections based on face, location, travel, or other differences.
Google Photos acts as backup when photos are sent or in Google terms 'Shared'. This is just a common backup tool when photos are shared between social media or other platforms or apps.
Google Photos received critical acclaim after its release from Google in 2015. The reviewers liked the updated Photo service for its recognition technology, search, apps and loading times. However, privacy concerns arise, including Google's motivation to build the service, as well as its relationship with government and legislation that may require Google to submit a user-wide photo history. Google Photos has seen strong user adoption. It reaches 100 million users after five months, 200 million after one year, and 500 million as of May 2017, with Google announcing that over 1.2 billion photos are uploaded to the service every day, with the total totals of all uploaded content being measured at over 13.7 petabytes of storage.
Video Google Photos
Features
Google Photos has two storage settings: "High quality" and "Original quality". High quality includes unlimited photo and video storage for up to 16 megapixel photos and video up to 1080p resolution (maximum resolution for smartphone users in 2015). Original quality retains the original resolution and quality of photos and videos, but uses the storage quantity in the user's Google account.
This service offers apps for Android and iOS operating systems, and websites. Users back up their photos to cloud services, which become accessible for all their devices.
Photo Services analyze and organize images into groups and can identify features like beaches, ceilings, or "Toronto snow storms". From the app search window, users are shown potential searches for groups of photos in three main categories: People, Places, and Things. This service analyzes photos for similar faces and groups them together in the People category. It can also track faces as they get older. Places Category uses geotagging data but can also determine the location in the old photo by analyzing the main landmarks (e.g., Photos containing the Eiffel Tower). Category Category processes photos for their subject matter: birthdays, buildings, cats, concerts, meals, graduations, posters, screenshots, etc. Users can manually remove categorization errors.
The recipient of the shared image can view the web gallery without downloading the app. Users can swipe their finger across the screen to adjust the service photo editing settings, as opposed to using sliders. Images can be easily shared with social networks (Google, Facebook, Twitter) and other services. This app generates web links that are accessible to users and non-Google Photos users.
Update
In December 2015, Google added albums shared to Google Photos. Users collect photos and videos into albums, then share albums with other Google Photos users. Recipients "can join to add their own photos and videos, and also get notifications when new photos are added". Users can also save photos and videos from a shared album to add them to their own private collection.
As of June 2016, Google updated Photos to automatically enter the created albums. After the event or trip, Photos will group the best photos together and suggest to create an album with them, alongside maps to show pin trips and geographic locations for the right places. Users can also add caption text to describe photos. In October, Google announced several significant updates; Google Photos will now bring up old memories with the people identified in the user's most recent photo; will sometimes highlight the best photos when the user recently took a lot of pictures from a particular subject; will now make animations from videos and photos (animated photos from the beginning), featuring the most memorable moments in the video; and now will find all the sideways photos and help users easily turn them to normal orientation. For all these features, Google's search engine learns to do the job, without requiring user interaction. In November, Google released a separate app - PhotoScan - for users to scan printed photos into the service. The app, released for iOS and Android, uses a scanning process where users need to focus their cameras over four dots lining the printed image, so the software can combine photographs for high resolution digital images with the least possible flaw. Later that month, Google added the "Deep blue" slider feature that allows users to change the color and sky saturation, without degrading image quality or accidentally changing the color of objects or other elements in the photo.
In February 2017, Google updated the "Albums" tab of the Android app to include three separate sections; one for camera camera rolls, with different views for sorting options (such as people or locations); another for photos taken within other applications; and one third for the original photo album. In March, Google added an automatic white balance feature to the service. The Android app and website are the first to receive the feature, with the next launch into the iOS app. Then in March, updates to the service allow photo uploads in a "light preview" quality to be instantly viewed on a slow mobile network before higher quality uploads later when using faster Wi-Fi. This feature also extends to photo sharing, where low resolution images will be sent before being updated with higher quality versions. In April, Google added video stabilization. This feature creates duplicate videos to avoid overwriting the original clip.
In May 2017, Google announced some updates to Google Photos. "Suggested Sharing" reminds users to share photos taken after the fact, and also group photos by face and suggests recipients based on face recognition. "Shared Libraries" allows two users to share a central repository for all images or specific image categories. "Photo Books" are physical photo collections, offered either as softcover or hardcover albums, with Photos automatically suggesting collections based on face, location, travel, or other differences. Toward the end of the month, Google introduced the "Archive" feature that allows users to hide photos from the main timeline view without deleting them. Archived content still appears in relevant albums and in search. In June, a new sharing feature announced in May was launched to users.
Maps Google Photos
History
Google Photos is a stand-alone successor to the photo features previously embedded in Google, the corporate social network. Google launched a social network to compete with Facebook, but the service never became popular and Facebook remains the Internet's preferred website for social networking and photo sharing. Google, however, offers photo storage and organizational tools that go beyond the power of Facebook, even though Google does not have a user base to use it. By leaving a social networking affiliate, Photo services change its association from a sharing platform to a private library platform.
On February 12, 2016, Google announced that the Picasa desktop app will be discontinued on March 15, 2016, followed by the closing of Picasa Web Albums service on May 1, 2016. Google states that the main reason for retiring Picasa is because it wants to focus its efforts "entirely on a single photo service "; cross-platform, Google Web-based photos.
Growth
In October 2015, five months after the service launch, Google announced that Google Photos has 100 million users, who have uploaded 3.72 petabyte photos and videos.
In May 2016, one year after the Google Photos release, Google announced the service had more than 200 million monthly active users. Other statistics show at least 13.7 petabytes of photos/videos have been uploaded, 2 trillion labels have been applied (24 billion of them selfie), and 1.6 billion animations, collages and effects have been created based on user content.
In May 2017, Google announced that Google Photos has over 500 million users, which upload more than 1.2 billion photos daily.
Reception
In a Google Photos release in May 2015, reviewers wrote that the service was among the best of its kind. Walt Mossberg from Recode represents the best cloud storage service, against competitors from Amazon (Amazon Drive), Apple (iCloud), Dropbox, and Microsoft (OneDrive). Jacob Kastrenakes of The Verge wrote that the release made Google its primary competitor in the photo storage market, and that its price structure ignored the idea of ​​payment for photo storage. Sarah Mitroff and Lynn La from CNET write that the phone and tablets service app is very good, and that Google Photos has a slimmer design than the Flickr feature and Yahoo settings than the Apple iCloud photo service.
Kastrenakes describes the launch of the May 2015 service as proof that Google is playing the "best feature" of Google's social networking. He stated that Photo service is "always good", and likes that users will be able to use the service "without signing up for a new social network". Mossberg described the release as a "liberation day" for photo features that are "effectively hidden" in "widely ignored social networks". The service strategy, as described by Josh Lowensohn of The Verge , is to place all data on Google servers so that it can be universally accessible.
Mossberg liked the service search function, writing that the search for "Massachusetts" "instantly brought many photos of the subject". Lowensohn notes the speed and intelligence of services, especially in his ability to sort unorganized photos, as well as photo loading times, search speeds, and simple photo editing tools. Kastrenakes compared the new image analysis of this service with the technology launched by Flickr at the beginning of the same month. Mossberg thought the facial grouping feature was "very accurate", but was very impressed by grouping by subject. He was surprised that the search for "boat" found both the Cape Cod fishing vessels and the Venetian gondola, but also noted errors such as professional photographs listed as screenshots.
PC Magazine John C. Dvorak is concerned about service privacy. He is very concerned about Google's motivation to build services, corporate relationships with existing government, and potential laws that will require Google to provide all of the user's photo photos upon request. Dvorak compares such scenarios to inviting others to "steal your underwear drawer". He criticized the service sync functionality, and preferred image folders via an unedited "flat database". Dvorak also highlighted the poor choice of photo service for animate and lack of longevity guarantee, given the sudden cancellation of Google Reader. He finally suggested that users instead use portable hard drives, which he considered safer and cheaper.
In June 2015, Jacky Alcine, a 21-year-old programmer, sees the new Google Photos app has filed a number of photos of herself and her black friend in a self-made album called "Gorillas". After reporting, Google removes the controversial "gorilla" tag from the app and makes an apology.
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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