Google I/ O:
Photos: Google app has unlimited storage, lots of control for sharing items
Annual developers conference, above, gets going with array of new product announcements.
“Google Photos is that private, sacred, secure safe place where all of my memories can live without agenda.”
Bradley Horowitz, Google vice president of product management
Google used its annual developers conference on Thursday to announce products that challenge its biggest rivals in fields ranging from payments to pictures.
In the keynote presentation at its I/ O conference in San Francisco, the Mountain View company pitted itself against Apple, Facebook and even Yahoo by launching Google Photos, a free app and online service that helps users organize, store and share images and videos.
Google Photos aims to store a person’s entire lifetime of photos and video — not unlike Apple’s iCloud, Yahoo’s Flickr or Facebook’s social network or photo- sharing service Instagram.
What differentiates the product is its goal to provide users an easy way to share images while maintaining greater control over who sees them,
executives said.
Google Photos will “let you hold on to the memories that matter, even if you weren’t the one who was holding the camera,” said Google Photos director Anil Sabharwal.
The audience inside the Moscone West auditorium cheered loudly when Sabharwal said the product would serve as an unlimited backup for users’ high- quality photos and video. The service will store photos as large as 16 megapixels and video of up to 1080p resolution. Flickr allows users to store up to 1,000 GB.
The app is available on the Web, Android and Apple devices and works without downloading or launching another app. Sabharwal demonstrated how mobile users can drag and drop selected photos to new albums or to share using their fingers.
“You can share and save what matters,” he said.
Analysts say it’s another way for Google to gain users — and through them ad dollars.
“In the end, Google’s job is try to get more and more people to use Google services so they can sell them things in the future,” said Tim Bajarin with advisory services firm Creative Strategies.
Google has long struggled with social media. It’s early social network Google Buzz died, and its Google+ product has never emerged as a real competitor to Facebook. After the keynote, Google executive Bradley Horowitz said his team decided to create Google Photos outside of Google+ to give photography “its own seat at the table.”
“It’s not clear that the personal photo management is aligned with the mission I shared for Google+,” said Horowitz, vice president of product management. “The concept of managing my photos is different from photo sharing.”
The company said sharing on Google Photos has to be deliberate.
“There is a reason in Gmail that we don’t have a button that says publish to Internet,” Horowitz said. “In the same way, Google Photos is that private, sacred, secure safe place where all of my memories can live without agenda. That explains why we thought this deserved its own seat at the table.”
On Google Photos, pictures are automatically organized by subject: people, places and things. For pictures taken without geolocation tags, Google can recognize certain landmarks and label them. Users can also search their photos using terms such as “food in Hawaii” or “golden retriever.”
There is one catch to the unlimited storage plan. It’s free for users who let Google compress photos from their original format. Users can pay $ 10 a month for a 1 terabyte service that stores photos in their original uncompressed format, although executives insist they have no plans to generate revenue from Photos for now.
Other items at the conference included: Smartwatches: Google said it was working on a range of developer tools and software intended to improve its Android phones, watches and other Internet- connected devices.
In a clear bid to steal momentum from Apple’s much- hyped Watch, Google said it is revamping its Android Wear platform.
“We love watches, and it’s always been this incredible mix of beauty and technology,” said Google engineering director David Singleton. “We’re making your watch more useful to you even when you don’t have your phone.”
While Apple has emphasized the different styles of its watches, Singleton said there are already more than 4,000 apps built specifically for Android Wear.
“That’s thousands of apps that do way more than just tell the time,” he said. “Ultimately, Android Wear is about choice.”
Also, Android Wear watches will include “always on” screens, eliminating the need to tap, twist or shake your wrist to wake up the display. Payments: Google introduced Android Pay, the company’s attempt to answer Apple Pay.
Smartphone users can wave their devices to buy items at more than 700,000 stores and restaurants, including Macy’s and McDonald’s, using near- field communication technology. Android Pay now works with Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express.
In another nod to Apple Pay, Google is including a fingerprint-reading system in its next mobile operating update to verify payments.
“They are fulfilling the demand for that on the Android platform,” Bajarin said. “This now makes them more competitive with Apple’s iPhone when it comes to payments.” Streaming: Google also said HBO Now, the premium network’s online streaming service, will be available for Android devices this summer. HBO Now debuted exclusively on Apple TV in April. Internet of Things: Google also is working on improving communication among connected ordinary devices, from door locks to thermostats. Google plans to preview an operating system for the Internet of Things called Brillo in the third quarter. Google is also working on Weave, a communications system that helps those Internet of Things items “talk to each other,” said Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of products. Weave will be out in the fourth quarter.
“We see a range of possibilities and we think it’s endless,” Pichai said. Virtual reality: Google emphasized in its presentation that it wants to make technology accessible for everyone, even virtual reality. The company unveiled a new version of its Cardboard virtual reality viewer, which supports both Android and iOS phones. To promote it, Google has created Expeditions, which lets entire classrooms of Cardboard-wearing kids and teachers take virtual reality “field trips” to far off places like the Palace of Versailles.
Focusing on low- cost models geared toward education makes Google different from Facebook, which has gone after gamers since its $ 2.3 billion acquisition of headset- maker Oculus VR.
Also, to help create virtual reality experiences under a new project named Jump, Google is teaming up with wearable camera company GoPro to build a device that can capture a 360degree view. New software available this summer will process the raw images into a seamless virtual reality shot that can be viewed on YouTube.