Google Buys Picassa
Google just bet on photo sharing by acquiring Picassa. Blogger integrated their Hello service at the time they did their re-design, so they have been working together for a couple of months now. The acquisition makes sense to me:
- Photos are inherently social, people use them to tell stories and share experiences
- Photoblogs and Moblogs are the fastest growing segments of consumer blogging right now
- Camera phones will outpace the sales of cameras and phones combined within five years
- Partnering with a printing provider like ofoto provides a direct and immeadiate revenue stream
- Picassa gives them a client to ease upload and provide organization
- It gives Google a new area of expertise and technology beyond Images
Blogspace just got richer, as in social media. Keep in mind that Picassa on its own isn't social software (especially compared to Flickr), but in combination with Blogger it can be.
[via Adam]
UPDATE: John Battelle: So now let me state the obvious: Google will compete in the photo management/storage/search/untangle-the-shoebox market. And by extension, let me state the not so obvious: I think travel is next.
