Halloween has officially arrived in New York City, and Google Photos has marked the occasion by turning Times Square into a pumpkin patch! But that’s not all—Google’s “Pumpkin Patch NYC” event will feature a “Pay with a Photo Food Truck.” Participants will be presented with a 20 second challenge to find an assigned themed photo in the Google Photos app. Participants are then rewarded with cider donuts from the food truck, and are also invited to have their photos taken in the nearby photo booth to see their pictures instantly appear on a Times Square billboard. This celebration is meant to showcase Google Photo’s amazing search functionality that makes organizing and archiving all your photos so much easier than ever before.
The free service photo app was launched this summer, during Google I/O 2015. The app works across a number of platforms: Android, iOS and on the Web. You can use Google Photos to backup all the photos and videos you take on your phone. At the high-quality setting, the app offers unlimited free storage. What’s really cool about the app is that it allows you to search through your photo library using search technology organized by image recognition featuring “People,” “Places,” and “Things.” For example, Google Photo’s face recognition technology will easily sift through photos of your children through a range of years. Using “Things,” you can search for photos using any key term, as specific or general as you want, such as pumpkins, Halloween, costumes, etc.
It is this functionality that is being highlighted at the Pumpkin Patch NYC even today. At the event, Google Photos reps are encouraging attendees to search through Halloween and New York relevant terms to quickly and easily find their best photos. Participants are also invited to take photos in photo booths where they will then be displayed on a billboard in Times Square, captioned with example search terms relevant to the photo. For example, a photo of a participant holding a pumpkin can easily be found in the app using a simple search term – “orange.”
The Halloween fun doesn’t end there, as Google Photos is also inviting attendees to have their photo booth portraits carved right onto a pumpkin by a special carving machine.  Professional pumpkin carvers and artists will also be on hand to carve gorgeous NYC themed displays for attendees to enjoy.
Pumpkin Patch NYC will be in Times Square today from 12pm-8pm. Take a minute to check it out, and maybe get your portrait carved into a pumpkin—and possibly end up on a billboard!
