Earlier in the year in February, there were reports released about a new experimental service by Google that was named Tablescape. The app, which used to serve as a stylized funnel for content connected to the Google+ social network, urged users to take and upload pictures of food named "foodographs" that would fall into certain categories such as "cheesy," "vegetarian" and "naughty."
The Tablescape app also showed featured content, along with special tips in foodography for users.
However, Tablescape was closed without much fanfare after just a few months, with the experimental service seemingly shelved. However, in the update sent by Google to testers, it wrote that the company is not giving up in its foray into food photography, with the influences of Tablescape possibly appearing in the future in other apps.
Google looks like it is keeping its word, with the company now carrying out tests for a new feature in the Google Maps service that involves users uploading pictures related to food.
The feature will be rolling out first to local guides that are on level 3 and higher, which are users that have posted over 50 reviews on Google Maps as part of the Local Guides program of Google. The feature has a function of alerting users when Google Maps detects a food picture that is newly captured, taken at a place related to food that is stored in their device. The service will then attach the detected picture to a specific location so that all other users will be able to see it.
The email from Google, which was sent out to the qualified local guides, includes a link to a Google support page that mentions notifications showing up after users have taken a picture in public locations such as bars and restaurants that Google thinks should be interesting to other users. The support page, however, does not mention a specific name for the new Google Maps feature, nor does it specify that the feature involves photographs of food.
While Tablescape looks like it will be reduced from a full-fledged app to a feature on one of its many services, Google is maintaining its promise of not giving up on food photography, folding in what it could have learned from its earlier experiment into the new feature for Google Maps.
Photo: Steven Depolo | Flickr
