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.
Anyone have any idea what the price was? These guys have struck gold by getting Google stock before the IPO....
Posted by: Damian | July 13, 2004 at 11:58 AM
Yeah right, and that might give Google legitimity to scan your entire disk and gather "a few profile information" whilst they are at it...
Picassa was great for their ability to organize your photo album, etc. after scanning your disk(s). I will want to make sure that no "extra" information makes it way into the Google cookie.
Posted by: Jeff Clavier | July 16, 2004 at 05:23 PM
how can i obtain the picassa program, with which to organise my photo discs?
Posted by: kassandra tripos | October 01, 2004 at 11:23 AM