Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) has apparently acquired photo analysis startup Jetpac for an undisclosed sum. Jetpac made the announcement on its site and said it will be removing its apps from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s App Store soon and ending support for them on Sept. 15.
Google takes in Jetpac’s city guides
Jetpac is known for the technology it developed to analyze Instagram photos. The company’s app simply looks through photos posted on Instagram to match up locations users might want to visit based on where they’ve been before. Users simply open up the app to see which places certain types of personalities visit the most often. For example, the app could point out pet stores or dog parks for pet lovers, popular restaurants for foodies, and the like.
By analyzing all those Instagram photos, Jetpac has created more than 6,000 city guides, according to PC Magazine. Inside those guides, there are top ten lists of different types of things to do in various locations. The lists focus on the places that are the most popular. One of the interesting aspects of the company’s technology is that it can analyze how happy people look in the photos they take of themselves at these places.
What Google might want with Jetpac
Jetpac’s employees will become part of the Google Knowledge team, which is working on improving real world understanding and embedding it into search results. CNET also notes that there are a number of different technologies Jetpac has that Google might be interested in. Of course the search giant will undoubtedly put the startup’s city guides to good use. Google Maps is one of the company’s most popular services outside of search, and the city guides will fit in well with the geographic focus there.
Also Jetpac’s photo analysis technology runs automatically, scanning massive public photos without the need for humans to look them over. The technology is apparently similar to how Google’s search algorithms analyze the web as a whole.
