At today’s Google I/O keynote, the search giant unveiled Google Photos. The new service by the company allows Web-based users, as well as Android and iOS device owners a file repository and discovery utility for unlimited 16MP photos, and 1080p videos, for free. Included in the service is automatic video tagging, advanced search, privacy measures for shared pictures, and album creation.
Google Photos is a discrete offering, extracted from Google+. It implements auto-tagging with Google’s image recognition tagging, and will make collections of frequent photo targets. Selecting a photo subject’s face will bring up a collection of other photos featuring that individual.
The new service integrates with Twitter, and Facebook, in addition to Google +. Users can remove metadata before sharing photos, for a layer of privacy, if desired. Google is compressing photos, but calls the compression used “near identical” and “print quality.” The service across all named platforms launches later today.