Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Riya http://pulse2.com Sun, 27 May 2012 18:16:46 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Like.com Gets Bought Out By Google http://pulse2.com/2010/08/15/like-com-gets-bought-out-by-google/ http://pulse2.com/2010/08/15/like-com-gets-bought-out-by-google/#comments Sun, 15 Aug 2010 23:57:35 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/?p=34921 Continue reading →]]>
In 2005, Google almost acquired Riya.com, a consumer-oriented image recognition company. Riya had the ability to recognize clothes, watches, earrings, etc. from an image and show you similar items through online retail channels. Google decided to walk away from Riya. Riya re-emerged as a company called Like.com shortly after.

Like.com raised almost $50 million since 2006 and makes around $50 million per year now, according to TechCrunch. The acquisition price is rumored to be higher than $100 million. Like.com was co-founded by Munjal Shah and Burak Gokturk.
[TechCrunch]

]]> http://pulse2.com/2010/08/15/like-com-gets-bought-out-by-google/feed/ 1 Riya Is Shutting Down August 21st http://pulse2.com/2009/08/14/riya-is-shutting-down-august-21st/ http://pulse2.com/2009/08/14/riya-is-shutting-down-august-21st/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:10:55 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/?p=18888 Continue reading →]]> riya-logo
Riya.com is a facial recognition service that was able to find similar images around the web.  Riya founder Munjal Shah wrote an e-mail to their users this morning saying that they are shutting down the service on August 21st.

The service launched about four years ago and almost sold themselves to Google but the deal fell through.  After the deal did not clear, Shah and his team decided to focus on a new service called Like.com.  Like.com can detect accessories that people are wearing and find similar accessories (if not the same) for sale across the web.

Below is the full e-mail that was sent out.
riyaemail

[via TechCrunch]

]]> http://pulse2.com/2009/08/14/riya-is-shutting-down-august-21st/feed/ 0 Google, August, and CMEA Invest $5.75 Million in Pixazza http://pulse2.com/2009/03/28/google-august-and-cmea-invest-575-million-in-pixazza/ http://pulse2.com/2009/03/28/google-august-and-cmea-invest-575-million-in-pixazza/#comments Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:17:53 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/?p=12923 Continue reading →]]> pixazza-logo
Pixazza.com is service that connects advertising to images.  The company released a press statement about their $5.75 million in funding earlier this week.  Investors include Google Inc., August Capital, and CMEA Capital.

Let’s say that you find a picture of a celebrity, Pixazza places a price tag icon on the apparel that they are wearing.  Putting your mouse over the price tag reveals an ad that tells you where you can find that product online.

Like.com has a very similar feature where you upload a picture and it e-mails you the place that you can find similar products.  Like.com used to be called Riya and it was rumored that Google wanted to acquire that company a couple of years ago.

“Pixazza hopes to do for images what Google’s AdSense did for web pages,” stated Bob Lisbonne, CEO of Pixazza. “We are excited about the potential our technology holds for delivering an engaging user experience that creates incremental revenue for web publishers.”

Pixazza’s angel investors consist of Ron Conway, former eBay COO Maynard Webb, and Facebook CFO Gideon Yu.  The company was started by James Everingham.  He brought together a team of people that worked on Netscape in the 1990′s to put together Pixazza.  The company is based in Mountain View, Calif.

]]> http://pulse2.com/2009/03/28/google-august-and-cmea-invest-575-million-in-pixazza/feed/ 1 Like.com To Raise Huge Round Of Funding & Bring In Solid Revenues http://pulse2.com/2008/07/31/likecom-to-raise-huge-round-of-funding-bring-in-solid-revenues/ http://pulse2.com/2008/07/31/likecom-to-raise-huge-round-of-funding-bring-in-solid-revenues/#comments Thu, 31 Jul 2008 06:51:04 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/?p=4177 Continue reading →]]>
Like.com is a visual search engine with a focus on shopping and consumption.  According to VentureBeat founder, Matt Marshall, Like.com will be preparing to raise double digit funding within the next two weeks.  The round of funding, provided by Menlo Ventures, will complement Like’s revenue success.

Like.com allows users to search for consumer products by specific details, colors, and find goods worn by celebrities.  Like is working on a technology that allows users to upload photos and find similar goods.  When consumers click through the goods on the search engine and buys it from retailers, Like.com shares the revenue.  Like.com’s revenue is rumored to be close to $20 million.

To date, Like.com’s total funding is roughly $19.5 million, provided by Bay Partners, BlueRun Ventures and Leapfrog Ventures.  Like.com is a spin-off from Riya.com.  Riya.com was founded by Munjal Shah in 2004.  Riya was rumored to be courted for an acquisition by Google 3 years ago for roughly $40 mill [GigaOM].

Related Links:
1. Like.com
2. Riya.com

]]> http://pulse2.com/2008/07/31/likecom-to-raise-huge-round-of-funding-bring-in-solid-revenues/feed/ 1 Microsoft’s Interactive Video Advertising: Video Hyperlinks http://pulse2.com/2007/03/19/microsofts-interactive-video-advertising-video-hyperlinks/ http://pulse2.com/2007/03/19/microsofts-interactive-video-advertising-video-hyperlinks/#comments Mon, 19 Mar 2007 05:53:38 +0000 Amit Chowdhry http://pulse2.com/2007/03/19/microsofts-interactive-video-advertising-video-hyperlinks/ Continue reading →]]> microsoft_logo1.png
Under MSN Movies, there is currently an extraordinary advertisement for kohls. As the advertisement is playing a small green icon will appear which indicates that there is a built-in video hyperlink (VHL) in that portion. So if you see a dress that a woman is wearing, simply click on the dress and it will direct you to that item on Kohls.com.

VHL advertising was developed by the Microsoft adCenter Labs and the technology requires users to have Adobe Flash or ActiveX installed. “Video hyperlink ads are a milestone for Microsoft adCenter Labs. As the first stand-alone product from Microsoft adCenter Labs, video hyperlink ads symbolize Microsoft’s promise to innovate and advance the entire industry to new levels,” stated a Microsoft spokesperson.

You will notice in the below screen shot that the dress in the advertisement vide on the left matches the shopping cart option on the right. After you click on all of the items in the commercial that you like, you can check them out by clicking “Buy Now At Kohls.com.”
Microsoft Screen Shot 1

This concept seems to be a mash-up of YouTube videos and Riya’s Like.com.

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