Max Levchin, co-founder and former CTO of PayPal, announced today the public beta launch of his new venture, Slide.

Slide is a free downloadable desktop program that indexes photos on the user’s hard drive, automatically groups them into intuitive channels, and plays them back via a unique always-on ticker interface. Because of this innovative scrolling “photo playback” model, users can rediscover and enjoy images they would rarely see otherwise. With just one click users can choose to share any photo or invite both registered and unregistered friends and family to subscribe to entire channels of photos. Simple access controls allow users to manage the privacy of their photos.

Slide’s users and business partners can also create public channels for the Slide community to enjoy. Slide’s Web site features a public directory of users, partners, and channels. Public channels feature diverse content, from semi-pro photography showcases to RSS feeds of photo blogs, to product catalogs. Alongside digital photos, Slide supports many rich media types, such as video, music, and others.

“Slide’s elegance and simplicity make it the perfect application for watching and sharing rich media from your hard drive, your friends, and the Web,” said Max Levchin, Slide’s founder and CEO. “While you read your email or surf the Web, Slide lets you see and share all those pictures you always knew you had somewhere but never have the time to look at.”