Though Google secretly rolled out a website for its new, “uber public” photo-sharing service, and nothing publicly disclosed about Photovine, the service appears to be one in which consumers can take snaps from their phones and have them upload in a stream of pictures in the same way that tweets flow into Twitter. Presumably, if you subscribe to someone else’s Photovine, you will see their latest photos almost as soon as they shoot them.
Surprisingly though, judging by the title, not much was there to see besides what looked like the only graphic on the website of an iPhone 4 wrapped in vines (see image below) with tiles of various photos on the screen — it is obvious that Photovine has something to do with, well, photos.
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According to the FAQs on the Photovine website, “Photovine is a community that is about producing fun and unique collections of photos that we call Vines.” Um, ok… So, how does Photovine work?
“In Photovine, vines connect you with people through the ideas and themes expressed in your photos,” states the site. “A vine is like an endlessly growing family of photos connected through a common caption created by you, your friends, and people all over the world.”
On the other hand, users can effortlessly track each other, as they do on other social media networks. From there, they can interact through the Photovine network.
But, the Photovine “Support” page warns that “the Photovine group is uber public. Hence, anyone can see your photos, even if are not not following you. Being able to find like-minded strangers and make new friends is part of what makes Photovine so fun and unique.”
Moreover, it seems that Google is all about invites lately, as many people were scrambling around to find its recently touted Google+ invites when the product launched earlier this month.
The green button on left side lets you request an invite. Here, entering your email and name on the Photovine site will give you a message saying you should be receiving an email soon with further instructions. Shortly after requesting the invite, user will receive an email saying you have been added to the wait list. Photovine invites will be slowly rolling out later this month, and those on the wait list have been told to be patient while the invites are distributed.
The button next to the invite, starts the “Official Photovine Video” called “Warm and Fuzzy.” For instance, the video shows a woman taking a photo of a ridiculously cute puppy. She tags it on Photovine as “Warm and Fuzzy.”
Besides, Photovine’s slogan is “plant a photo, watch it grow.” The video Google posted features folks taking photos with iPhones, just one photo creating a Vine can lead to hundreds or thousands of photos, which clearly suggests that Photovine will be an iPhone app.
According to the influential news blog Cnet, Google has offered few details about the service and said little in response to a query.
“Photovine is a photo-sharing service developed by a few folks at Slide,” the company said in a statement, referring to the social media company it acquired in August. “It is a fun way to learn more about your friends, meet new people and share your world with others.”
In fact, the app is now available in iTunes, and Google says it is “working hard” on a version for customers using phones that run its Android mobile operating system.
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