Slashdot Mirror
How Google Photos Became a Perfect Jukebox for Our Memories (medium.com)
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.
[...] 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.
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).
Clickbait puff piece for Google ad revenue blithely ignoring all of the pitfalls and abuses of technology that Slashdot readers are intimately aware of. Traditional media is like the sad homeless pervert jerking off on the bus. Yeah, they're probably having a good time, but nobody really wants them around, and the world would probably be a better place if they just died.
It's not just the privacy issues that keep me from using Google Photos. It's the fact that Google has a history of starting a service and then some time down the road, ending that service. I certainly wouldn't risk having the only copy of a photo hosted "in the cloud" like a lot of people do. With Google's free stuff, you always get what you pay for.
I keep copies on at least two of my computers, copies on an external hard drive, and pay real money for space to keep them online.