Yesterday we reported that Google had launched a splash page for a new social photo sharing service called Photovine. We’d actually been tracking this service since it emerged that the company had recently registered the domain name and trademark. Now we know a bit more about how the site works thanks to a video it’s added to the page (and we’ve embedded below) – and you can sign up for an invite to try it too.
Developed by Google’s Slide subsiduary, which has also created other experimental social apps like Disco and Pool Party recently, Photovine is a tag-based photo sharing app. You might upload a photo of something you tag as, say, ‘Cuddly’ or ‘Best Mom in the world’ and you can then explore the photos that others have posted with the same tag. While Flickr did this years ago, Photovine’s approach looks at least fun enough to be intriguing.
You can now sign up for an invite to the service too. Upon entering your name and email address, you’ll get an email back explaining that invites will be slowly rolled out beginning later this month.
One interesting observation: a commenter on our post yesterday noted that Spotlife.com (another domain owned by Google) also pointed at the Photovine website. Now it displays some interesting poetry which, a quick search reveals, seems to appear regularly on Slide’s unused websites
Gratuitous centipede,
foolish ploy,
A/C adapter,
nibble boy!
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A second interesting observation: As another commenter to yesterday’s post noted, the admin login screen for Photovine was accessible for a time yesterday (it’s since been locked down). Options included bizarre things like : Pets Items Pickled, Group Cex, Monies, Noobs, Ranch Item Manager, Spartacus – huh?
A third interesting observation: All the marketing materials for Photovine show iPhones – there’s not an Android device in sight. Google seems to let Slide do its own autonomous thing, and it’s not yet clear if this will be available for Android or not. When we asked Google about Photovine yesterday, we were told: “Photovine is a photo sharing service built by a few folks at Slide. We don’t have any further details to share at this time.”
Once we get a chance to try Photovine, we’ll let you know what we think.
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