The latest company to be blessed with a Google acquisition is Like.com, an intriguing website specializing in “visual search,” a technology Google has been toying with for years.
Google has its own visual search engine incorporated into Android – users can take a picture of a monument, landmark, or ever a person and receive results based on its extensive combing on images on the Internet. It is a technology that Google has been interested in for a while, but has had trouble finding ways to incorporate it.Enter Like.com. It’s a visual search-powered e-commerce site. Largely focused on apparel items, it tries to identify products for users based on the color and design of the items they’re searching for. For example, if users really like that sequined gown, Like.com will be able to provide other items that are similar in design, color, etc.Tech Crunch broke the story that Google is looking to buy the unique online store and all the back-end technology that comes with it. Combined with all of its existing search strength, Google could bring this into something really powerful.Like.com reportedly grosses around $50 million per year so a $100 million price tag is a reasonable investment. It’s a slight step away from the social networking/gaming scene that Google has been so focused on lately, but it does ensure that it can stay on top of the latest search technology in addition to going off on all of these side projects (like social gaming) as well.