Hidden within the depths of Microsoft's assorted Web entities, with an eye firmly on the success that Google has enjoyed with a similar set-up, is the online presence of Microsoft Live Labs. This is where a community of people is aiming to help “build a better online world.” And one of its projects is Photosynth.

Now, as the Labs team confesses, as things stand Photosynth isn't even at beta stage. But this is the beauty of the Labs concept, for the team has nonetheless released a technical preview that offers a fascinating glimpse into where the project is heading. Already it's shaping up to genuinely offer a new way to use your digital photography.

The thinking is this: assuming you have a sizeable collection of digital snaps, what if there was a piece of software that could sift through them, check what similarities there are between them and where possible piece together a three-dimensional environment out of what it detects? It's heavily ambitious, but that's just the route that Photosynth is taking.

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Sadly, it's not yet at the stage where you can upload your own images to really put it to the test, and we can't be the only ones to have deep-seated suspicions over how it works with your own photos, rather than those specifically selected to maximise the potential of the demo. Yet from the collections the Labs team has already uploaded, it's clear that this is potentially something very exciting indeed.

We played around with several of the sets that the team has uploaded as part of the technical preview and were warmly surprised by the potential on offer here. And we don't use the word ‘surprise' easily: appreciating that photo editing software has, for the past year or two, been in search of genuinely useful day-to-day new features rather than novelties to stick on the back of the box, Microsoft could (just after discontinuing its own Digital Image Suite product) have pulled the proverbial rug.

Its way of working takes a little getting use to, but basically the world it recreates features wireframes and images, and clicking on a sector brings up in some detail the picture in question. You can zoom in and out and, as this is a 3D world, you're encouraged to flip around and explore. All the while the environment is being rebuilt around your whims and wishes. It's impressive stuff.

It's the speed of it that really got to us, though. Even on a modest machine, and again appreciating that the images have been optimised to show the Photosynth project in its best light, exploring Photosynth (once you've got past the initial 6MB download) is a very speedy affair.

And while it's unusual for us to review something that's effectively not even at release candidate stage, the Photosynth project is simply too fascinating to ignore. If you can get over how choosy it is in running in its current guise, we strongly recommend that you take a look.

Appreciating that it should be better when it's finished, even the state Photosynth appears in now offers a glimpse at a fascinating new way to use your digital photography collection. Roll on Microsoft Labs.