There is speculation on the Web that Google is in talks with recently-launched Silicon Valley company Riya to acquire the company for about $40 million. Riya is a Redwood City, California-based startup that allows people to search their digital photos using face-recognition technology.
A blog run by Niall Kennedy reports that “Photo service Riya has been acquired by Google for close to $40 million according to sources involved with the company.”
However, another blog run by Om Malik cautiously reports “Since this past Thursday, I have heard whispers that Riya, a Redwood City, California-based photo service is being courted by Google. Now this rumor has been repeated by multiple sources, though not one of them is directly involved with the two companies. One of them indicated that this is still at due diligence stage.”
Google has not yet officially confirmed either side of the story.
Riya’s official launch occurred this past Friday, November 18th, in Atherton, California. Rumors about this possible acquisition began brewing before Riya had officially launched, while its software was still in its alpha stage. Riya’s site states, “Our face recognition technology automatically tags people in photos so you can search for just the photo you want. In your album. In your friends’ albums. On the web.”
Acquiring Riya to complement Google’s current photo sharing service, Picasa, would put Google back in the running with Yahoo!’s photo service, Flickr, which was acquired in March of 2005.
Google may want to finalize a deal before Yahoo! or Microsoft has the chance to make a competitive offer.
Riya’s software can reportedly distinguish between twins, regardless of how similar they appear, and even identify members of the same family.
Sources:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/
msid-1302220,curpg-2.cms
http://news.com.com/2061-10812_3-5958810.html
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/
wpn-60-20051117PictureThisGoogleMayBuyRiya.html
http://www.riya.com/
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