Cloud technology unlocks the past to help us better understand the present
Powerful though it may be, ‘cloud’ technology remains an intangible mystery for many. To reveal the capabilities the cloud can unlock, Google partnered with The Times to digitize our enormous archive of photography. Nicknamed ‘the morgue,’ The Times’s photo cache includes millions of images, some more than a century old.
A Times team is scanning the photos and using Google Cloud technology to archive and search both the images and their metadata — vital historic markings, attachments and other ephemera that accompany each image. The partnership is showing the world how the Google Cloud can deliver tangible, truly fascinating, solutions.
The collaboration ranks as one of the largest in Times history, establishing a partnership between multiple teams across two pioneering brands, including engineering, marketing and content experts.
Marketing extensions included an NYT x Google Cloud campaign promoting the collaboration: The Times’s Past Tense content series supported by and attributed to Google Cloud; and a Google Cloud campaign that ran across our site, explaining how cloud technology is enhancing journalism.
For Times readers, the Past Tense series delivered a compelling body of visual journalism curated by The Times newsroom. From the images being brought back to life, Times photo editors are rediscovering vivid narratives and singular moments that The Times is sharing in print and digital promotions co-branded as “powered by Google Cloud.”
Google Cloud
Times Photo Archive