14 DAY TRIAL // Google's ambitions with the social web are not much of a secret. The company has been working on 'something' for many months now, but so far only a few small things have popped up, the most important being the +1 button. But there are signs that it is still working on something bigger, signs like a recent trademark filling for the word 'Photovine.'
The filling describes the trademark as being related to what sounds like a photo-centric social network, or at least a social context for sharing photos online.
The trademark is filed with the description: "Communication services, namely, transmission of visual images and data by telecommunications networks, wireless communication networks, the Internet, information services networks and data networks."
The filing was made on June 7 and is registered to Google, so there's little doubt that the company is planning something with that name. Even more telling is the fact that the domain photovine.com was recently sold.
The domain is now listed as belonging to DNStination and is registered by MarkMonitor, but these services are used to hide the real owner of a domain, to help companies maintain some secrecy, especially when it comes to upcoming products.
All of this indicates that Google is planning something, but whether it's a photo-related social network or simply a new social hub for its existing photo services remains to be seen.
Google already owns Picasa, which has a variety of social features, but is mostly used as an online photo locker rather than a place to share pics with friends and the community.
The company also owns Panoramio, a geolocation photo sharing service with a much greater emphasis on community, but a rather small user base, by Google standards.
As Facebook has shown, photos are key to any social network with ambitions of becoming a huge player. Even Twitter recently launched its own photo-sharing and hosting service. [via Fusible]