Google is into big shopping this year. We had earlier reported about Google’s shopping spree for 2010 and we may add this to the list. Google has confirmed that it will buy Like.com for over $100 million. For those who don’t know, Like.com is a visual search site which allows people to search for items by detail, colour, shape and pattern. The main website is primarily sells clothing and jewellery.
It is clear that Google intends to expand its search engine capabilities and allow people to search visually as opposed to text based search. Google already lets people search using their Android phones with the Goggles app which uses technology from a recently acquired UK firm, Plink. The app processess a picture and returns back search results relating to the picture taken.
Like.com was earlier called Riya back in 2005 and was focussed on facial recognition. Google had attempted to buy it back then but backed out of the deal. However this time is intends to finalize it. Since its launch in 2009, Like.com has had an estimated revenue of about $50 million a year.
An official press release about this buy out is yet to be made.