Who’s Facebook going to buy next? Put your money on Foursquare
The news Facebook is buying mobile photo app start-up Instagram has sparked off speculation that social networking giant might go on a buying spree in the run-up, and after, its expected $100 billion initial public offering in a few weeks.
Irish betting house Paddy Power, in a fairly transparent PR stunt, has sent out the odds it’s offering punters who want to bet who would be next on Facebook’s list. In a sure sign that the list of names was rustled up overnight right after the news (a bit like today’s blog actually) the list starts off with more than a modicum of respectability with solid names like location-based check-in app company Foursquare at odds of 4 to 1 and note-taking service Evernote at 9 to 2. It follows with some other interesting names like Dropbox, Spotify and Pinterest all in single digit odds.
But towards the end of its list Paddy Powers seem to have run out of ideas and suggest odds as low as 40 to 1 of Facebook buying YouTube. Really? From Google’s cold dead hands? Even weirder it has the same odds of Facebook buying two failed social networks MySpace and British network Friends Reunited.
The odds on Facebook’s next acquisition according to PaddyPower. 4/1 Foursquare 9/2 Evernote 5/1 Dropbox 7/1 Spotify 8/1 Pinterest 16/1 Rara 16/1 Audiboo 25/1 Tumblr 25/1 Flickr 40/1 YouTube 40/1 MySpace 40/1 Friends Reunited
I’m no bookie but 1000-1 might be fairer odds of those latter deals happening. But then again, PaddyPower has odds at just a 100 to 1 of Al Gore winning this year’s Democratic Presidential nomination.
Still, who would have bet a less than two year old start-up with around a dozen employees led by a non-engineer with no revenues could sell for $1 billion? Anything’s possible.
Google sees ad revenue in images
Google has turned its flagship Internet search engine into a key advertising channel for businesses over the past decade.
But Google has a variety of other online properties that it believes are also well-suited for advertising, and on Tuesday the company began to effort that appears intended to ramp-up advertising on its specialized search engine for images.
Google executives told reporters at a briefing in San Francisco that its Image Search product, which has cataloged more than 10 billion images of everything from celebrity photos to impressionist paintings, generates more than 1 billion page views everyday – a rare nugget of information about Web traffic from the search giant.
And Google unveiled a new ad format for Image Search that allows marketers to combine images with the text that appear in the ads above regular image search results.
Until now, search ads that appeared in Google Images were for the most part all text (in some cases, the ads had product-specific images). But the new ad formats will allow marketers to include visual images for anything they want: a picture of an alluring beach for a travel agent selling Hawaiian vacation packages, for instance.
The change in format means that only two ads will now appear above Image Search results, instead of the three ads that were previously displayed. But Google executives said they expect the image-based ads to sell for a premium.
The new ad format is part of a broader overhaul to Google Image Search announced on Monday, that includes the most significant redesign of the product’s user interface since it was launched in 2001.
CES: Gadgets from the Consumer Electronics Show
The Consumer Electronics Show is underway, with myriad companies announcing new devices and services. Most are cool, although many may never be seen again after this week, if the companies don’t find manufacturing partners or a consumer market that wants these cutting-edge gadgets.
Here’s a sample, as seen through the lens of Reuters photographer Mario Anzuoni.
A guest wears a Liquid Image Scuba Series HD320, which feature a 135 degree wide angle lens and the ability to shoot HD 720P video.
A ZOMM Wireless Leash, about $80. Once linked to your phone via Bluetooth, it can remind you that you forgot your cell, it can act as a speakerphone, a personal security alarm, and it can even dial local law enforcement anywhere in the world at the press of a button.
Microsoft’s new “Synth”-esizer stiches together photos
(Update – adds video of Photosynth demo)
If you’re snap-happy with your digital camera, Microsoft thinks it has the Web site for you. Microsoft Photosynth is a new, free photo service that stiches together pictures (preferably lots of them) of a place or a thing to create a 360-degree visual experience. You can zoom in and out smoothly, pan left and right, up and over.
Here’s the description of how Photosynth works from the Microsoft press release.
“Photosynth analyzes each photo for similarities to the others, and uses that data to estimate where a photo was taken. It then re-creates the environment and uses that as a canvas on which to display the photos.”
To get started, you’ll need to download a software application. Sorry Mac fans, it’s PC-only for now. David Gedye, a Microsoft group manager who leads the PhotoSynth team, assured me that the Windows-only situation is only temporary.
Once you have the Photosynth application, it’s pretty self-explanatory. Upload the pictures and let the “synth” begin. I found that you have to take LOTS of pictures to create a good synth, which probably explains why Microsoft is providing 20 gigabytes of storage for users.
Microsoft expects the service to be a big hit for photo enthusiasts. It also expects to see professional applications for real estate agents or retailers who want to show buyers a complete view of some new product.
