Google buys Plink, puts it to work on Google Goggles
By Donald Melanson 
posted April 12th 2010 9:29PM
posted April 12th 2010 9:29PM
Well, it looks like Google Goggles could soon be getting a few enhancements, as visual search company Plink has just announced that it's been acquired by Google, and that it will now focus all its future development efforts on Google's own visual search app. For those not familiar with it, Plink is the UK-based company behind the PlinkArt Android app, which lets you simply take a photo of a painting and then receive all the pertinent information about it. Of course, that's something that Google Goggles also does, but it seems that Plink will be working to make that functionality even better, and help out on other types visual search as well. Of course, that also means that the PlinkArt app itself will cease to be, but it will apparently remain functional in its current incarnation for the time being.
They bought a game from The Price is Right?
@1 Infinite Loop Cupertino CA
Hah. I read it as "Google buys Pink", as if they were so enamored with today's phone announcement.
@Alex Michael Steele buys pink, why shouldn't google?
@1 Infinite Loop Cupertino CA
not exactly, but as long as it identifies naked women for me i'm good :) all these girls get confusing (whats your name?) ha
What does Google Goggles show if you hold up your Nexus One to Steve Jobs?
I know the Evo 4G would show a middle finger.
@semblance
The greatest innovator and CEO to set foot on this earth in the past 35 years.
@semblance An android porn application
@1 Infinite Loop Cupertino CA
Sure he is. You want some more Kool-Aid?
@1 Infinite Loop Cupertino CA
HA HA HA AH AH HA HA HAAAA.
Oh...you were SERIOUS?
@1 Infinite Loop Cupertino CA Ridiculous comment is ridiculous.
@1 Infinite Loop Cupertino CA HAHAHAHAHAH not by a long shot man, steve jobs is a figure head brandishing Jonathon Ives' innovations and the innovations they buy from small forward thinking companies around like hes God of tech. too bad every time they release a new os or hardware its the same useless crap as before which is why people are turning to android
@1 Infinite Loop Cupertino CA Too bad he only owns one set of clothes.
What the fack? If you're standing in front of the facking painting, the information will be right there.
@SaggyBalls
what?! no!
a.) maybe you see the paining in a textbook or magazine or something
b.) if you actually are in a museum all those stupid little signs say are things like "Starry Night. van Gogh. 1889."
besides, the idea for this goes way further than just paintings. i say if anything can help to improve google goggles, so much the better. this will probably help improve goggle's image recognition on many things, not just paintings...
@spasewalkr
Ahhhh, gotcha, makes it slightly better. But, again, if it's in a textbook, chances are the info is, you know, there.
@SaggyBalls: A better example would be if you saw a painting at a garage sale.
i know im not the only one who initially read that as "Google buys Pink" and thought wtfpalooza?
@skyblaze
I read the same thing. Although i went as far as to google it before actually reading the rest of the article. Fail is me....
"You are looking at 'Dog's Playing Poker'."
I love art and sure this application will come in real handy...
@rottenapple
It'll be an excellent way to get thrown out of art museums
the start of Google Chrome A.I.
Very interesting, maybe Google Goggles can identify more works by Basquiat now.
Probably cost them a couple million, which is pennies to Google.
@Ipadkiller You really need to start trolling somewhere else.
@Ipadkiller
Not Boring.. There was a painting in a church in Bruges that I wanted to know more about.. time to find it...
"Google Buys _____" i mean seriously they probably own my house for all i know lol.
After "Google Buys" in the title, I really wished and expected to hear "Palm".
what's Google Goggles?
http://www.shopbattery.co.uk/acer-laptop-battery/btp-63d1-battery.htm
@evawanling
Nice battery.
I think Google will end up buying everything... Awesome!
@Ipadkiller
You will prolly be staring at a million dollar painting on a yard sale but you will never know coz you yawned on this article.
@staticjethro This should definitely improve Google goggles. Right now about 70% of the time when I use Google Goggles on my Droid I get "image not found"
Now please buy palm or atleast share some money for htc so they'll buy palm
@Edobe
Bcoz they are just filling up the database. It will be useful as time goes by.
Why are comments turned off on the SanDiskFAIL article? Is it just me?
So basically Google is trying to upgrade to bring the capability of Goggles to the level of Nokia's Point & Find app. The current Google Goggles is kind of limited due to its OCR roots and this will help it a lot.
Google, while you are out shopping, buy Palm!
OOoooohhh i cannot wait! this is a huge step in goggles!
I thought they didnt want you taking pictures at art galleries because of issues with the flash and paint or something or another... i hope google recommends having the flash off or that i was vastly misinformed.
I think this stuff is the first step towards a freaky future.
To be able to Google stuff just by pointing your phones camera at it...
THEN we can move onto actual Google Goggles. Glasses with built in cameras that can Google whatever you look at.
@Gregorian its usually not the flash they are worried about. It's the fact that with a decent high res image you could technically print a version to hang at home instead of buying the image you are looking at.
This is pretty cool. One flaw though...most places with art work hanging really don't want you to take a photo of it. The art museum and a good portion of the galleries here in Portland have signs saying no photography. So yeah, neat but not very useful.
@givemeyourshoes
But art museums/galleries will have signs telling you about the artwork already. =p
@Darkroom
I hope Google Goggles can improve my chances at the bar as the beer goggles haven't been working lately.
@Darkroom In a good way?
This will be used just like MP3 recognition is used. To send spiders across the web scrounging for the intellectual property owned by the big five and sending cease and desist notices to the hosts.
It won't matter if its fair use or innocently used as simply an avatar or whatever, and everything will be purchased for pennies from the author and sold for millions to the people.
@Ducman69 And if it can be used to identify still pictures, then having a bot scan a couple five second intervals can identify and report upon video as well.
This is a tool that can give enormous power in the form of information to a few.
@Ducman69 And lastly, if it can identify works of art and videos, then it can also identify your face in a crowd or license plate in traffic which if paired with something like UK's CCTV government surveillance systems means that privacy and anonymity is a thing of the past.
@McKirf You have stumbled upon an awesome idea! - If you're hammered, just google goggle the girl you are chatting up and the app will give you the 'Pint rating' (for the uninitiated: the amount of pints it would take the average man to drink before the girl is deemed attractive enough to hit on) you can then decide in safety whether or not to continue your pursuit. The app would also connect with Google Latitude so you can be prewarned about nearby 10-pinters and/or laugh at your friend's expense about the heffer he is trying his moves on.