Google may unveil an online picture sharing and storage service that will be independant from the Google+ social network, with more details to be expected at Google's annual software developers conference in San Francisco later this month. The new photo tool will let users post images to Facebook and Twitter, according to unnamed sources quoted by Bloomberg.

In March, Google Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai said that Google?s photos and social-stream features were likely to be treated as separate features.

Keeping such a service seperated from Google+ could help Google better compete with rivals.

Facebook acquired mobile photo-sharing service Instagram in 2012 and quickly gave the business independence within the company. The result was a significant user base growth.