Google snaps up visual search engine Like.com

Google continued its ongoing shopping spree, acquiring visual search solutions provider Like.com--financial details were not disclosed, but TechCrunch reports the deal is valued at more than $100 million. A message from Like.com founder and CEO Munjal Shah posted on the startup's homepage confirms the purchase, Google's 18^th known acquisition this year alone: "We see joining Google as a way to supersize our vision and supercharge our passion," Shah writes. "This is something we are truly excited about."

Like.com offers visual search tools optimized for e-commerce services, helping consumers match fashions according to item color, shape, patterns, etc. While Google has not clarified how the acquisition fits into its larger vision, the deal appears to bolster its growing augmented reality aspirations. In late 2009, the digital services giant introduced Google Goggles, a mobile image recognition application optimized for Android smartphones, and in April, Google acquired mobile visual search solutions startup Plink, developer of the PlinkArt app. PlinkArt enables users to identify paintings and artwork by snapping photos with their Android device--after the art is recognized, the app supplies information on the work and artist, additionally offering consumers tools to share artwork with friends and order prints.

Last month, Google chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt said the company is positioning Android to drive revenues exceeding $10 billion a year, galvanized by advertising and digital content downloads. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Schmidt said Android's growing popularity with consumers guarantees Google's signature web search, maps and ad-subsidized services will continue to thrive as consumers migrate from the desktop to the smartphone--Google now activates roughly 200,000 new Android devices each day.

For more on the Google/Like.com deal:
- read this TechCrunch article

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