Google wants to turn your food photos into an (unpaid) job

Long gone are the days when the first thing you reached for upon the arrival of your dish was your knife and fork - the dinner time ritual of the 21st century involves a photo taken, filter applied and hashtag added before you've even so much as sniffed it.

Now Google wants to take advantage of this obsessive food sharing, by bringing your photos to its Maps service.

Word comes from the tech sleuths at Android Police that Google is testing a new Maps feature that can detect when a food photo is taken in a restaurant, and offer to attach them to the establishment's Map details.

Before you start dreaming up a new career as a professional food photographer, we're devastated to report that there won't be any payment for this use of users' photos. Google has sent out details of the trial to 'level three' users of its Local Guides system (keen types who submit over 50 reviews of local establishments to its Local Guides service), alerting users when Maps detects a suitable food snap that they might wish to add to a restaurant's map location.

Users are directed to the following page if they wish to turn off the new feature, which states that notifications will "show up after you've taken a photo in public places that Google thinks are interesting to other people, like restaurants and bars". 

When the service is rolled out to a wider array of users, you can expect a catalogue of food snaps to appear under location information on Maps entries - either making you salivate in anticipation, or providing a handy insight into where to avoid.

But please, stop posting those cappuccino pictures. No one cares.

[Via: Android Police]