Google acquires UK mobile visual search startup

Google has acquired UK mobile visual search startup Plink for an undisclosed sum.

The company’s founders Mark Cummins and James Philbin said they will cease to update their PlinkArt app – although it will continue to be available for download – and will now be focusing development efforts on Google Goggles.

PlinkArt is a visual recognition app for the Android mobile phone operating system, which analyses and identifies pictures of well known artworks.

In the four weeks following the inital launch of PlinkArt, it was downloaded more than 50,000 times, Cummins and Philbin said.

They said in a statement: “The visual search engines of today can do some pretty cool things, but they still have a long long way to go.

“We’re looking forward to helping the Goggles team build a visual search engine that works not just for paintings or book covers, but for everything you see around you. There are beautiful things to be done with computer vision – it’s going to be a lot of fun!”