Canon has opened the beta version of a new cloud-based image management service, with the working title of Project 1709. However, rather than offer storage space for your photos itself, it allows you to aggregate all of your pictures stored on other sites around the internet.

The aim of Project 1709 is that it is a one-stop portal that gives you access to the images on your social networks, those stored online using other cloud services, and on your own hard drive or NAS devices.

It presents those pictures in a tiled format, with a customisable timeline ribbon, but the most interesting feature is that it offers extensive tag filtering search functionality to allow you to find specific images easily, no matter where their stored location.

As this is a Canon service, project 1709 also lists each image's EXIF data, including the camera’s model, exposure time, aperture and ISO speed, so that you can refer back to your favourite photos remotely and set up similar shots.

The Store feature can upload images for you and Canon has introduced a technology that recognises the content of each picture so that it highlights any repetition across your library. When the same image appears on different linked social networks and cloud services, you will be offered the opportunity to remove any duplicates from the list.

Now available, the beta edition of Project 1709 offers the ability to store and access images, and use the tagging and search functionality to manage image collections. Facebook integration is now live, while Canon is in talks with a number of other third-party services.

It will be publicly fully launched in February 2013.

You can sign up to try Canon Project 1709 at www.project1709.com.