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I thought Google+ led to Google Photos. That wasn't in this story. Everyone is claiming credit for Google Photos it seems!

by xrd 8y ago

webspiderus 8y ago
really, Picasa led to Google Photos as the previous photo product the company had ..
- nostrademons 8y ago
  Surprised the parent's downvoted - it's as close to the truth as anything else. Like a lot of Google products, Photos has a lot of forebears. Picasa was one of them, as was Google+ (IIRC, the Picasa team was folded into Google+ when Larry refocused the company on Social in 2011). Sounds like Bump was also aquihired into it, and I think there was also a lot of cross-pollination between Image Search, Research, and Google Photos around some of the search & content recognition features.
  - marban 8y ago
    And Picasa itself was originally created by Idealab. [I'm an EIR there]
woah 8y ago
What's so special about Google photos? As far as I can tell it just gets used because it is the default camera roll on Android.
- xrd 8y ago
  It's the best app from the last few years. It's radically simple: snap a photo and (by default) it only gets uploaded when you are on WiFi. Later, you'll get a notification that it used AI to find the best pictures of the dozens you took and and assembled a photo album with them. You'll get notifications telling you that you had an important event a year ago and can see the most relevant photo from that day. It creates then and now photos, so I can see how my kids have changed from exactly a year or exactly five years ago. It automatically shares my photos of the kids with my wife. All this happens without any interaction other than snapping photos freely. For a busy parent, this can't be understated. Compared to Facebook, I don't have to put up with the noise. And, it only shares with a very limited set of people. Of course "it" does now know my kids'names. It's pretty amazing and scary to see how it knows my infant daughter's face is the same one as she has four years later. I'm not sure I would see the similarly if she weren't my own. Lightweight interactions with powerful AI and massive processing power behind it makes for an incredible app. The reviews are not lying.
tsycho 8y ago
It’s fashionable to bash Google+ and ignore/diminish its contributions. Almost all features in Google Photos for the first 1.5 years of its existence already existed in Google+. Further, the infrastructure that the Google+ team created runs a very high percentage of Google servers today (excluding Search), and ships in a lot of Android and iOS apps by Google. For insiders, I am referring to Boq, BoqWeb, Wiz, Tiktok, and Service Registry.

I thought Google+ led to Google Photos. That wasn't in this story. Everyone is claiming credit for Google Photos it seems!

by xrd 8y ago

I thought Google+ led to Google Photos. That wasn't in this story. Everyone is claiming credit for Google Photos it seems!

webspiderus 8y ago

really, Picasa led to Google Photos as the previous photo product the company had ..

nostrademons 8y ago
Surprised the parent's downvoted - it's as close to the truth as anything else. Like a lot of Google products, Photos has a lot of forebears. Picasa was one of them, as was Google+ (IIRC, the Picasa team was folded into Google+ when Larry refocused the company on Social in 2011). Sounds like Bump was also aquihired into it, and I think there was also a lot of cross-pollination between Image Search, Research, and Google Photos around some of the search & content recognition features.
- marban 8y ago
  And Picasa itself was originally created by Idealab. [I'm an EIR there]

woah 8y ago

What's so special about Google photos? As far as I can tell it just gets used because it is the default camera roll on Android.

xrd 8y ago
It's the best app from the last few years. It's radically simple: snap a photo and (by default) it only gets uploaded when you are on WiFi. Later, you'll get a notification that it used AI to find the best pictures of the dozens you took and and assembled a photo album with them. You'll get notifications telling you that you had an important event a year ago and can see the most relevant photo from that day. It creates then and now photos, so I can see how my kids have changed from exactly a year or exactly five years ago. It automatically shares my photos of the kids with my wife. All this happens without any interaction other than snapping photos freely. For a busy parent, this can't be understated. Compared to Facebook, I don't have to put up with the noise. And, it only shares with a very limited set of people. Of course "it" does now know my kids'names. It's pretty amazing and scary to see how it knows my infant daughter's face is the same one as she has four years later. I'm not sure I would see the similarly if she weren't my own. Lightweight interactions with powerful AI and massive processing power behind it makes for an incredible app. The reviews are not lying.

tsycho 8y ago

It’s fashionable to bash Google+ and ignore/diminish its contributions. Almost all features in Google Photos for the first 1.5 years of its existence already existed in Google+. Further, the infrastructure that the Google+ team created runs a very high percentage of Google servers today (excluding Search), and ships in a lot of Android and iOS apps by Google. For insiders, I am referring to Boq, BoqWeb, Wiz, Tiktok, and Service Registry.