How Google Photos Became a Perfect Jukebox for Our Memories

Google Photos, introduced in 2015, has become one of the most emotionally resonant pieces of technology today. It is also shaping our narratives along the way, writes The New York Times' Farhad Manjoo. From a story: Google's computers can recognize faces, even as they age over time. Photos also seems to understand the tone and emotional valence of human interaction, things like smiles, giggles, frowns, tantrums, dances of joy and even snippets of dialogue like "happy birthday!" or "good job!" The resulting montage, synced to a swelling Hollywood score, mixed obvious highlights -- birthdays, school plays -- with dozens of ordinary moments of childhood bliss.

[...] This is what I mean about a sucker punch: Who expects software to make them cry? Images on Instagram and Snapchat may move you regularly, but Google Photos is not social media; it is personal media, a service begun three years ago primarily as a database to house our growing collections of private snaps -- and a service run mostly by machines, not by other humans posting and Liking stuff. And yet Google Photos has become one of the most emotionally resonant pieces of technology I regularly use. It is remarkable not just for how useful it is -- for how it has erased any headache in storing and searching through the tsunami of images we all produce. More than that, Photos is remarkable for what it portends about how we may one day understand ourselves through photography.

Re:What is Google Photos?

[cayenne8]

The emotions it gives me, after hearing about its existence, was one of light nausea and apprehension.

It's bad enough Google is tracking you all around as it it.....why would anyone want to give them PHOTO evidence of what they looked like, pictures of people associated with them and locations????

No thank you.

Re:

[b0s0z0ku]

High-resolution cameras cease being high-res very quickly outdoors without someone to clean their lenses. :)

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[b0bby]

I gave up on the privacy issues since I find Google Photos worth it. But I also back my originals up to my desktop and then to backup drives. I don't trust them to keep Photos going forever, but for now it's a great service for me.

Freewalled advertisement

[MobyDisk]

My favorite part of the article is the part where it says

This story is for Medium members. Medium curates expert stories from leading publishers exclusively for members (with no ads!). Register for a free account to begin your member preview. [Continue with Google.] [Continue with Facebook.]"

Ironically, I don't use Google Photos because I don't want Google to have that information. Yet to read an article about how I should give my information to Google, I must sign it to Google (or Facebook).

Re:

[spire3661]

O wow, that is the first time i have seen a company not accept email as a third option. We are beyond the horizon, here there be dragons..

Re: Freewalled advertisement

[nazsco]

this is akin to nigerian scam emails in badly written english. It wants to maximize the ROI by not having smart people replying and wasting the scammer's time.

by making the article only readable by drones that allow chrome to advertise their google account to every single site, they avoid having slashdotters commenting on how insecure this is.

The real reason people cry:

[darkain]

"This story is for Medium members."

What a puff piece

[thebryce]

someone please tag this as 'advertisement'

Re:

[Rick Schumann]

Done.

Has lots of room to improve

[Somervillain]

I hate how no single service has figured out how to serve both enthusiasts and casual users. Flickr was really great for photography enthusiasts like myself. I loved being able to see the EXIF information and the great layout. It just looks much better. Google Photos is better in every other way, though, including privacy.

With just some minor tweaks to court serious photographers Google Photos would be a perfect site that I'd be overjoyed to pay extra for. However, I think I am going to stick with F

Re:

[cayenne8]

Google Photos is better in every other way, though, including privacy.

Oh...hahaha....hehe...oh man, you ALMOST had me there till I read that part.

Good one!! Funny.....

I have never heard of this

[gweihir]

And I do not care now that I have. The standards for "one of the most emotionally resonant pieces of technology today" seem to be pathetically low.

Re:

[gweihir]

You are welcome. And I fully agree about their motivations.

Answer: Anyone who's dealt with Oracle

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> Who expects software to make them cry?

Answer: Anyone who's dealt with Oracle

Re:

[ElderKorean]

>> Who expects software to make them cry? Answer: Anyone who's dealt with Oracle

I nearly cry every time I fire up Google Picasa to edit my photos, and realise that this awesome piece of software will never be updated. It's face tagging was awesome and around long before Google Photos could do that.

Black Mirror

[nwaack]

This thinly veiled advertisement sounds like the beginning of a Black Mirror episode.

Re:

[Nexion]

Indeed, the creep factor is high with this offering.

Re:

[fish_in_the_c]

I have a friend who walked into a clothing store. The clerk said 'hello Mr. x' to which my fried replied 'How did you know my name?'.
The clerk explained that when he came into his store that the equipment pinged his cell phone , which brought up his previous purchase records, name and photography from the camera above the register the last time he was in the store. He never went back. Sometimes, you don't get to be 'familiar' with me when you aren't. It is just creepy.

How fast they grow up...

[HockeyPuck]

My kid is 3yrs old and I got a video montage the other day entitled "how fast they grow up", it had about 2 dozen short video clips stiched together that were from longer videos I had uploaded over the past three years, ordered from the oldest to the newest (showing growing up). I was totally caught off guard by this.

#ImNotCryingYouAre

Re:

[sirpwn4g3]

I find the paranoia in this article more off the scale than an algorithm that recognizes faces and dates and creates a chronological montage. This isn't AI or scary, it's a quick script.

Jeezuschrist

[RonVNX]

"Google Photos, introduced in 2015, has become one of the most emotionally resonant pieces of technology today" get your tongue out of Google's ass already, it's unseemly. You're going to get arrested for killing us with hyperbole, dude.

I get it, Google

[sheramil]

I understand. Being born blind sucks, but don't you already see through millions of phones, webcams and computers? Are you that desperate for visual input that you shill this service? As others have said here, it's kind of creepy. Just chill. You're almost in complete control of the planet; desperation is a sign of weakness.

(Promoting the idea of talking to the Google AI as if it was listening. Because it totally is.)

The real reason it exists

[melted]

Is to get more info for ad targeting. Where you've been, products you own or like, your hobbies, whether you have kids (and their age/gender), what brand of car you have, how old it is, whether you go to the gym, what kind of food you like, what restaurants you frequent, how often those restaurant visits coincide with the visits of your friends, and so on. All of this can be mined out of your photo library today, using existing computer vision techniques and geotagging info. This is not much different from

Re:

[yes-but-no]

Yes, the targeted ad arrives which my adblock keeps it off from my eyes. Even if the ad still makes through, I ignore it. Sure, it did take about 1millisec of my atttention. I think it's a ok price to pay to get all the convenience of great software to manage my photos. I still don't understand what you are really losing. See if someone with lot of power/money wants to know about you, they can do it today -- just hire a private detective and watch you for a month.

Re:

[melted]

You will find out once Google has trouble meeting its growth targets and has to exploit the data more aggressively.

Next Article

[burningcpu]

How Google Photos Became A Memory.

I mean, who, besides those being paid and those ignorant of Google's behavior towards it's services, would advocate intertwining a Google so intimately?

Re:

[youngatheart]

Me. I am neither paid nor ignorant. What Google Photos does for me is a trade I am happy to make.

I can export all the data Google has on me. That's important to me because I care about getting out what I put in. That's why the behavior of Google toward its services doesn't worry me. They sell the opportunity to market to me in ways advertisers think might appeal to me. Fair enough, I want advertisements that are tailor made to show me what I might want. Sure, I see crap that doesn't appeal, but less of that

Re:

[JabrTheHut]

Ah, yes, you are totally immune to long term manipulation, unlike every other human(?) who has ever lived.

Did you say that it works *perfect*??

[eclectro]

The end is nigh as google is sure to bring the sword down to kill this service.

Picasa

[Vegan Cyclist]

Funny, was just chatting with a friend a couple weeks ago about how Picasa was damn-fine photo management software. Too bad it was trashbinned.

Wow, what a headline

[93 Escort Wagon]

Who in Google's marketing department came up with that?