Google wants to see Photos turn into a successful product

Aug 2, 2014 20:59 GMT  ·  By

It looks like Google may be looking to make some changes to Google+, the wanna-be social network that the company set up years ago and that few people actually use. The first on the list is Google+ Photos, one of the best features of the network, which may soon be rebranded and not-so-delicately separated from Google+.

A report from Bloomberg claims that the plans to change things up at Google+ have been around for months and were confirmed back in April, when Vic Gundotra, senior exec at Google and leader of the social network effort, left the company.

Basically, what the report says is that Google wants to separate Google+ Photos and rebrand it in order for it to bring in more people who wouldn’t use the service because of its tight connection to Google+. Instead, it would turn into a sort of Flickr, even though Google still has Picasa for exactly this purpose. In fact, the company that the Internet giant bought ten years ago is still working, even though it may have lost some of its shine.

Google+ Photos, however, comes with a large number of really cool features that can help it stand out against other competitors. For instance, on top of the large cloud storage space associated with a Google account in general, it comes with “Auto-Awesome.”

The feature enables Google to automatically enhance your pictures for you by adjusting the tone, balance, colors and whatever else is needed. It can also create a better picture by overlapping several shots taken in succession, make collages, animations and even full videos. The service also helps create Stories, which have recently been introduced by Google and which set in chronological order various pictures made in a certain location, such as, let’s say, your latest vacation spot.

Google didn’t exactly confirm the plans, but it did say that “over here in our darkroom, we’re always developing new ways for people to snap, share and say cheese.”

Google+ is far from being a success for the company that underestimated the future of social networks and came in late. The fact that Facebook managed to attract so many users in the years since its launch has certainly made an impact on Google’s success.

The company has tried various strategies to get people to sign up and to actively engage on the platform, but it seems that they’ve failed so far.