Google snaps up mobile visual search startup Plink

Google continued its recent shopping spree, acquiring its sixth company of 2010: U.K.-based mobile visual search solutions startup Plink. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The PlinkArt app enables users to identify paintings and artwork by snapping photos with their Android smartphone--after the art is recognized, the app supplies information on the work and artist. Consumers may also share artwork with friends and order prints. In late 2009, PlinkArt was named a finalist in Google's second Android Developer Challenge, winning $100,000--the sole funding Plink has received to date.

Writing on the Plink blog, Co-Founder Mark Cummins noted that PlinkArt will remain available for download, but he and partner James Philbin will no longer update the application, instead focusing their energy on Google's own mobile visual search tool Google Goggles. "For the Plink team the opportunity to take our algorithms to Google-scale was just too exciting to pass up," Cummins wrote, adding that the outfit's search efforts will expand beyond paintings and book covers to encompass "everything you see around you."

The Plink deal comes just a week after Google acquired digital services provider Episodic. Earlier this year, the company purchased Microsoft Office sharing and editing service DocVerse, followed by photo-editing site Picnik, email solutions developer reMail and social search startup Aardvark. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said the company plans to acquire approximately one startup per month throughout 2010.

For more on the Google/Plink deal:
- read this PlinkArt Blog entry

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