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From the Google YouTube Channel:
 
Photos from the past, meet scanner from the future. Get the new PhotoScan app by Google Photos, available now on Android and soon on iOS.
 
Get it on the Play Store: (https://goo.gl/ObgMwd) and App Store: (https://goo.gl/mbrGpA)

From the Google Maps Blog:

Three years ago we introduced a cloud-free mosaic of the world in Google Earth. Today we’re rolling out an even more beautiful and seamless version, with fresh imagery from Landsat 8 satellite and new processing techniques for sharper images than ever before. Satellite images are often cloudy, but not always over the same place, so we looked at millions of images and took the clearest pixels to stitch together this cloud-free and seamless image.
 
Higher Quality Imagery
 
Landsat 8, which launched into orbit in 2013, is the newest sensor in the USGS/NASA Landsat Program—superior to its predecessors in many ways. Landsat 8 captures images with greater detail, truer colors, and at an unprecedented frequency—capturing twice as many images as Landsat 7 does every day. This new rendition of Earth uses the most recent data available -- mostly from Landsat 8 -- making it our freshest global mosaic to date.
 
Our previous mosaic used imagery from Landsat 7 only, which at the time was the best imagery of its kind. Unfortunately, Landsat 7 images captured after 2003 were affected by a hardware failure, resulting in large diagonal gaps of missing data You can see this effect in the subsets of two Landsat 7 images captured over Oklahoma City, OK, in 2000 and 2003.
 
Processing imagery with Earth Engine
 
To produce this new imagery, we used the same publicly available Earth Engine APIs that scientists use to do things like track global tree cover, loss, and gain; predict Malaria outbreaks; and map global surface water over a 30 year period.
 
Like our previous mosaic, we mined data from nearly a petabyte of Landsat imagery—that’s more than 700 trillion individual pixels—to choose the best cloud-free pixels. To put that in perspective, 700 trillion pixels is 7,000 times more pixels than the estimated number of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, or 70 times more pixels than the estimated number of galaxies in the Universe.
 
Open data is good for everyone
 
This update was made possible in a large part thanks to the Landsat program and its commitment to free and accessible open data. Landsat, a joint program of the USGS and NASA, has observed the Earth continuously from 1972 to the present day and offers a wealth of information on the changes to the Earth's surface over time. And it's all available in Earth Engine!
 
The new imagery is now available across all our mapping products. To check it out, open up Google Earth, or turn on the satellite layer in Google Maps.
 
Post authored by: Chris Herwig, Program Manager, Google Earth Engine

TIME Magazine is reporting that Getty Images has accused Google of encouraging image piracy through its image search engine, Google Images. Getty has gone so far as to file an official complaint with the European Union Antitrust Commission.
 
In its complaint, Getty outlines key design features – like full-resolution slideshow previews – available in Google Images which leads to users being unwitting pirates.
 
From Time.com:

Getty argues that since image consumption is immediate, “there is little impetus to view the image on the original source site” once it’s seen in high resolution on Google. By making these images available to download, Google has “also promoted piracy, resulting in widespread copyright infringement, turning users into accidental pirates,” Getty claims.

See the rest of the article on Time.com.

 
From the Google Blog:
 
Putting the “real” in “virtual reality”
 
March 31, 2016 – Virtual reality has brought us to places ranging from the bottom of the ocean to the surface of Mars. But as good as VR is, it’s never been quite as real as, well… real life. Google Cardboard Plastic, launching today, changes all that. It’s our latest step toward truly immersive technology—a new viewer that lets you see, touch, smell and hear the world just like you do in real life.
 
Cardboard Plastic is the world’s first actual reality headset, complete with 4D integrated perspective, 360° spatially accurate sound, 20/20 resolution, and advanced haptics for realistic touch sensations. Expertly crafted from polymethyl methacrylate, Cardboard Plastic is lightweight, waterproof, and engineered to last a lifetime—no batteries, no wires. And unlike other VR headsets, it integrates seamlessly into your life—so you’ll never miss a thing. Unless you blink.
 
Find more about Cardboard Plastic at google.com/cardboardplastic. The future is clear.

From Google:
 
Today we’re making the Nik Collection available to everyone, for free.
 
Photo enthusiasts all over the world use the Nik Collection to get the best out of their images every day. As we continue to focus our long-term investments in building incredible photo editing tools for mobile, including Google Photos and Snapseed, we’ve decided to make the Nik Collection desktop suite available for free, so that now anyone can use it.
 
The Nik Collection is comprised of seven desktop plug-ins that provide a powerful range of photo editing capabilities -- from filter applications that improve color correction, to retouching and creative effects, to image sharpening that brings out all the hidden details, to the ability to make adjustments to the color and tonality of images.
 
Starting March 24, 2016, the latest Nik Collection will be freely available to download: Analog Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, Viveza, HDR Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro and Dfine. If you purchased the Nik Collection in 2016, you will receive a full refund, which we’ll automatically issue back to you in the coming days.
 
We’re excited to bring the powerful photo editing tools once only used by professionals to even more people now.
 
Download: The Google Nik Collection

From Google:

Moving on from Picasa
 
Friday, February 12, 2016 – Since the launch of Google Photos, we’ve had a lot of questions around what this means for the future of Picasa. After much thought and consideration, we’ve decided to retire Picasa over the coming months in order to focus entirely on a single photo service in Google Photos. We believe we can create a much better experience by focusing on one service that provides more functionality and works across mobile and desktop, rather than divide our efforts across two different products.
 
We know for many of you, a great deal of care has gone into managing your photos and videos using Picasa—including the hours you’ve invested and the most precious moments you’ve trusted us with. So we will take some time in order to do this right and provide you with options and easy ways to access your content. We’ve outlined below some of the changes you can expect.

The transition to Google Photos starts on May 1, 2016. See the full Google post for more information.

 
From the Google YouTube Channel:
 
We’re excited to introduce Smartbox—a better, smarter mailbox that fuses physical mail with everything you love about the electronic kind.
 
Smartbox is currently in field trial—stuck in the ground, in a field—for Inbox by Gmail customers. If you’re not yet using Inbox, simply email inbox@google.com any time before April 2 to be invited, and to reserve your spot on the Smartbox waitlist.

Today, Google has a little suprise for you. Open up Google Maps and click on the icon beside the satellite view (bottom left corner) and enjoy your game of Pac-Man. ;-)

Take a closer look at today's Google Doodle and you may notice that it pays tribute to early botanist photographer Anna Atkins (today is Ms. Atkin's 216th birthday). Some sources claim she is the first woman to ever create a photograph.
 
To learn more about Anna Atkins, simply click the Google Doodle on the Google Homepage.
 
Note: Depending on your specific region, the Google Doodle highlighting Anna Atkins may note be shown on the homepage. Click here for a link to the Doodle if your region does not display it automatically.

Photographer David Young has developed a free app that allows you to use Google Glass as your light meter. You can read more about the developer's inspiration on his site, LeicaLux.com.
 
Download Google Glass Light Meter.

It looks like Google has added something new to its Nik Collection. (thanks Pete)
 
Note: The image above is the Analog Efex logo with the new "Vintage Camera 6" preset applied. ;-)
 
From Google:
 
Today we’re excited to welcome Analog Efex Pro to the Nik Collection by Google. Our latest plug-in lets you reproduce the look and feel of classic cameras and processing methods without having to buy all that vintage equipment.
 
Analog Efex Pro is more than just vintage presets. Advanced tools let you precisely adjust bokeh, textures, lens distortion and lots more. You can even use on-image controls to choose the centerpoint of any effects you add.
 
If you’ve already purchased the Nik Collection by Google you’ll get Analog Efex Pro automatically, for free. Your copy of the collection will automatically update and you’ll see the new plug-in alongside SIlver Efex Pro, Viveza, and the rest of the Nik tools you use.
 
If you’re not a customer yet, you can buy the entire Nik Collection (still just $149) or download a free trial at http://www.google.com/nikcollection/products/analog-efex-pro
 
This is just the beginning for Analog Efex Pro. We hope you enjoy this first version, and be sure to stay tuned -- we’ll be adding more cameras, more controls, and more creativity in the months ahead.

 
This new promo video demonstrates what it's like to use Google Glass - and how the technology can help you capture, share, and preserve life's great moments as they happen.

Google Image Search now displays EXIF information for images in search results (if the information exists of course).
 
To see the EXIF information, click on an image and then click on the "More image info" link on the right sidebar.