social networks
Google wants to make photos Google Plus' killer app
May 15, 2013: 1:48 PM ETGoogle is betting its algorithms can enhance your snapshots.
FORTUNE -- Most of us will never be Ansel Adams. But Google is betting that its algorithms can enhance our snapshots with the finesse of a darkroom pro.
On Wednesday, the company unveiled a set of improvements to the photo capabilities of Google+, its social network, that include the automatic refinishing of images. Using the same kind of machine learning algorithms it developed for speech recognition and automatic translation, Google (GOOG) will tweak your photographs' light distribution and contrast; it will soften skin tones, reduce noise from low-light photos and remove red eye.
"We are not trying to make art out of your pictures," says Dave Besbris, vice president of engineering at Google+. "We are trying to make them look better."
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While other software packages, notably Apple's (AAPL) iPhoto, have image-enhancing features, Google says its new capabilities will be applied automatically to all photographs uploaded to Google+, removing a lot of tedious work. It also claims its algorithms deliver results that others can't match. "We're on the cusp of taking things that very very few people can do and doing them almost as well as professional," says Bradley Horowitz, a vice president of product development at Google+. Reviewers and users will have to decide whether such claims live up to scrutiny.
In addition to enhancing images, Google's new photo service will automatically select the best pictures from a mass upload so you don't have to manually find the top 20 pictures from your trip to Asia or your day at the county fair. It removes blurry images and those with poor exposure, and picks what it think is the best among duplicates with slight variations. It can also recognize landmarks, so your sub-par shot of Mt. Everest won't get lost. And it will learn to recognize your affinity for certain people -- say, your children or your girlfriend -- and make sure they end up in the highlighted shots. Of course, you'll be able to adjust the results according to your own preferences, and Google will learn from that.
Google is throwing in a handful of other goodies that it is immodestly calling Awesome. If its software notices a cluster of similar photos taken in rapid succession, it will create an animation, using each image as a frame. It will automatically create panoramas out of photos of adjacent landscapes. And then there's this: If you take multiple photos of a group of people, it will do its best to compose one where everyone is smiling and looking at the camera, by mixing and matching faces from the different shots. "Your darkroom is now a data center," says Horowitz.
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The improvements to the service, which also include tripling to 15GB the free storage for full-sized photos, is part of a set of changes to Google+ that the company is announcing at its I/O conference for developers in San Francisco on Wednesday. The include a revamped news stream with a multi-column design and a new version of Hangouts, which makes it easier to communicate among people.
Google is now claiming 190 million people actively use Google+ a month, and Horowitz said the new changes should dramatically increase the time people spend on the service. Still many skeptics say they see little activity on Google+, especially when compared with social networks like Facebook (FB) and Twitter.
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Why your inbox is being flooded by LinkedIn
Many users describe a surge in activity on the social network. Truth is, it's been a long-time coming.
FORTUNE -- What's up with LinkedIn? Suddenly it's everywhere. Last week, as I finished up teaching a dozen masters students in publishing, I told them to keep in touch. Nobody called. No one emailed. Seven of them requested to connect with me on LinkedIn.
What's more, lately my inbox has been teeming with social MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - May 10, 2013 2:22 PM ET -
Life, death, and free culture in the Mission
Ilya Zhitomirskiy was supposed to be the next Mark Zuckerberg. He had the startup, the crowdfunding, the loyal following. And then everything fell apart.
By Matthew Shaer
FORTUNE -- At 8 p.m. on Nov. 12, 2011, a San Francisco entrepreneur named Tony Lai received a call from a number he did not recognize. Lai had recently returned from a trip to Costco to pick up party supplies -- he and a friend MORE
Mar 26, 2013 5:00 AM ET -
Meet Facebook's new News Feed
Facebook is customizing its news feed view - and that could eventually mean new types of advertisements for the social network.
By Kurt Wagner, reporter
FORTUNE -- Facebook announced changes to its News Feed today that the company says will better personalize users' content. The updates feature larger posts and photos, making the feed more visual. The new feed, which will begin to roll out to some as early as today, MORE
Mar 7, 2013 2:35 PM ET -
A social network that really "gets" you
Startup ArchetypeMe wants to take personalization to the next level with a little help from Carl Jung.
By Erika Fry, reporter
FORTUNE -- How much do your social networks know about you? Too much? While many fear Google's creep and Facebook's omniscience, Michael Mendenhall, a former marketing executive at Disney and Hewlett-Packard suspects social networks are clueless when it comes to users' personalities. "Those sites are about chatting, sharing, discovery and MORE
Feb 19, 2013 1:08 PM ET -
Where social networking is headed next
Companies are generally slow to adopt new online tools consumers love. That has been true of social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. Until now.
By Kevin Kelleher, contributor
FORTUNE -- What do you get when you cross a buzzword like "social networking" with an eye-glazing term like "enterprise software"? A buzzkill -- in this case, one called "enterprise social networking."
As long as the web has been around, the consumer side of things MORE
Mar 5, 2012 11:36 AM ETPosted in: altimeter, charene li, Chatter, crm, enterprise social networks, esn, Jive, SalesForce, social networks, socialcast, Yammer -
Why Google+ needs pseudonyms
When Google insists that we use our authentic identities on Google Plus, it's because it wants its social service to mirror our real-life selves. But that overlooks a key point about the Internet: It's changing the way we present ourselves.
by Kevin Kelleher, contributor
FORTUNE -- When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg walked out on stage at the company's annual f8 conference this month and started talking about identities, he got a good MORE
Oct 4, 2011 3:16 PM ETPosted in: Andy Samberg, anonymity, Bradley Horowitz, Facebook, googke, google plus, Mark Zuckerberg, pseudonyms, social networks -
Microsoft gives Windows Live a Facebook facelift
By Yi-Wyn Yen
Microsoft is trying its luck at social networking - again.
After a failed attempt four years ago, Microsoft (MSFT) is ripping a page from Facebook's playbook, introducing on Thursday new profile and photo-sharing features to its web-based Windows Live services. The software giant allows users with Windows Live Hotmail or Messenger accounts to create online profiles that highlight what a person is doing through a Facebook-like newsfeed.
Microsoft hopes that MORE
yiwyn - Nov 13, 2008 12:22 AM ET -
News Corp.: Video ads to get premium pricing
News Corp. President Peter Chernin says online video is a premium money-making opportunity. Image: News Corp.
By Jon Fortt
HALF MOON BAY, Calif. - Looking at big money-making opportunities online, News Corp. (NWS) President Peter Chernin pointed to video, mobile and overseas markets as good long-term bets.
In an interview with Fortune editor at large Richard Siklos at Brainstorm Tech on Tuesday, Chernin said advertisers still haven't completely embraced the online opportunity, MORE
Jon Fortt - Jul 22, 2008 8:33 PM ETPosted in: Advertising, Brainstorm Conference, Facebook, Google, Hulu, MySpace, News Corp., social networks, Social web, television, Yahoo -
Tech chiefs ponder the Internet's future
By Jon Fortt, Fortune senior writer
HALF MOON Bay, Calif. - Sustainability will influence the next generation of Internet technology, according to Cisco (CSCO) chief technology office Padmasree Warrior.
At Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference on Tuesday, Warrior and technology visionaries from Nokia and Xerox sat down with Strategic News Service's Mark Anderson Tuesday to talk about dealing with information overload, mobile innovation, and the major tech transitions ahead.
One idea that's likely to MORE
Jon Fortt - Jul 22, 2008 2:55 PM ET
