Like.com
Encyclopedia
Like.com is a price comparison service
website that bills itself as a visual search engine for products.
and Zappos. With the results, users can highlight parts of a product image to find other products with similar patterns, shapes, and colors. Each of the three criterion can be ranked to determine the importance of each according to the user. Like.com is planning to allow users to upload their own photos for the website to analyze and return similar-looking products. They wish to also allow users to upload photos taken in places such as stores with a mobile device, so that they can search for the product online at a cheaper price.
described Like.com as "the next evolution of comparison-shopping engines, such as Google
's Froogle
, eBay
's Shopping.com
, EW Scripps' Shopzilla
or Become.com
and the next evolution in image search offered by the portals and search engines, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft's Live
and InterActiveCorp's Ask.com
."
officials reported that the Like.com will continue to operate separately from Google operations.
"We are pleased and excited to welcome Like.com to Google, where they'll work closely with our commerce team. We are excited about the technology they have built and the domain expertise they'll bring to Google as we continue to work on building great e-commerce experiences for our users, advertisers and partners," said Andrew Pederson, Google spokesman.
"We were the first to bring visual search to shopping, the first to build an automated cross-matching system for clothing and more. We see joining Google as a way to supersize our vision and supercharge our passion," said Munjal Shah, CEO Riya, the parent company of Like.com.
Price comparison service
On the internet, a price comparison service allows individuals to see different lists of prices for specific products. Most price comparison services do not sell products themselves, but source prices from retailers from whom users can buy...
website that bills itself as a visual search engine for products.
History
The website was created by Riya, a company built to create a search engine used to search for similar faces among photos. The company found it difficult to monetize the service, however, so they created Like.com to use the same technology for a different purpose. Riya's CEO, Munjal Shah, noted that "the same technology works well to find similar-looking products." Riya's CTO and co-founder, Burak Göktürk, had previously worked with computer vision technology and has filed for two dozen facial-recognition patents under his name. The website was first announced at the Web 2.0 Conference on November 8, 2006. Like.com has raised US$19.5 million from investors who include Bay Partners, BlueRun Ventures, and Leapfrog Ventures. The company plans to make money by acting as an affiliate to the retail sites that it links to, allowing it to receive about a 10% commission on each sale that the website sends to an online retailer. As of November 2006, the website has about two million unique products from 200 merchants.Features
Since launching, the website has only allowed users to search for jewelry, handbags, shoes, and watches. Users can browse the website to find a product that they are interested in, or one that looks similar to what they are looking for. They can then choose to use the website to search its database for similar-looking products. The website then returns the results with links to retailers such as Amazon.comAmazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
and Zappos. With the results, users can highlight parts of a product image to find other products with similar patterns, shapes, and colors. Each of the three criterion can be ranked to determine the importance of each according to the user. Like.com is planning to allow users to upload their own photos for the website to analyze and return similar-looking products. They wish to also allow users to upload photos taken in places such as stores with a mobile device, so that they can search for the product online at a cheaper price.
Reception
Bambi Francisco of MarketWatchMarketWatch
MarketWatch operates a financial information website that provides business news, analysis and stock market data to some 6 million people. MarketWatch offers personal finance news and advice, tools for investors and access to industry research. Along with its flagship website, the company operates...
described Like.com as "the next evolution of comparison-shopping engines, such as Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
's Froogle
Froogle
Google Product Search, formerly Google Products and Froogle, is a price comparison service launched by Google Inc. It is currently in beta test stage. It was invented by Craig Nevill-Manning. Its interface provides an HTML form field into which a user can type product queries to return lists of...
, eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
's Shopping.com
Shopping.com
Shopping.com is a price comparison service owned by eBay and operates websites in USA, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Australia. Shopping.com started out with the name DealTime.com which still operates as a related, but otherwise separate website....
, EW Scripps' Shopzilla
Shopzilla
Shopzilla is a price comparison service. Founded in June 1996 by Farhad Mohit and Henri Asseily as Binary Compass Enterprises, the company changed its name to BizRate.com in January 1999...
or Become.com
Become.com
Become.com is a product price comparison service and discovery shopping search engine with a mission to help shoppers make ideal buying decisions...
and the next evolution in image search offered by the portals and search engines, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft's Live
Microsoft Live
The following Microsoft services have been branded with the word "Live":* Windows Live, a set of services and software products mainly aimed at individuals* Microsoft Office Live, a set of services aimed at small businesses...
and InterActiveCorp's Ask.com
Ask.com
Ask is a Q&A focused search engine founded in 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen in Berkeley, California. The original software was implemented by Gary Chevsky from his own design. Warthen, Chevsky, Justin Grant, and others built the early AskJeeves.com website around that core engine...
."
Acquisitions
Internet search engine giant, Google Inc, bought the shopping comparison website, Like.com on Aug 23 2010. GoogleGoogle
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
officials reported that the Like.com will continue to operate separately from Google operations.
"We are pleased and excited to welcome Like.com to Google, where they'll work closely with our commerce team. We are excited about the technology they have built and the domain expertise they'll bring to Google as we continue to work on building great e-commerce experiences for our users, advertisers and partners," said Andrew Pederson, Google spokesman.
"We were the first to bring visual search to shopping, the first to build an automated cross-matching system for clothing and more. We see joining Google as a way to supersize our vision and supercharge our passion," said Munjal Shah, CEO Riya, the parent company of Like.com.