GazoPa: Similar Image Search

I have checked out all startup companies competing in TechCrunch50 (Conference 2008) and one company, in my opinion, has the most promising technology. Check this out:

GazoPa is a similar image search service on the web in private beta by Hitachi. Users can search images from the web based on user’s own photo, drawings, images found on the web and keywords. GazoPa enables users to search for a similar image from characteristics such as a color or a shape extracted from an image itself. There are abundant quantities of images on the web, however many of these simply cannot be described by keywords. Since GazoPa uses image features to search other similar images, a vast range of images can be retrieved from the web. GazoPa is a new visual search service that can navigate users to new territories on the web.

Source: GazoPa

GazoPa sounds incredible but too bad that I cannot try it out just yet since it is in private beta. Both you and me can get invites though, visit GazoPa and register your email address and GazoPa should give you the proper invitation soon.

In the meantime, watch the following video and see if you find GazoPa promising like I do.

Google can acquire GazoPa whenever they want

Michael Arrington from TechCrunch introduced GazoPa to the judges and one of them was Bradley Horowitz from Google. Michael had the audacity to tell Bradley that Google may not like GazoPa, he probably said because Google Image Search still relies upon keywords to identify images.

Perhaps so but Google can easily acquire GazoPa if they want to! :-)

Check out Like Dot Com

To set the record straight, GazoPa is not the first company to come up with such an intelligent technology. AltaVista does have a similar service one time ago but they have abandoned it. Don’t ask me why.

Now, Like Dot Com has a similar visual search technology with GazoPa. There is a stark difference though; Like use the technology to help visitors find similar or matching shopping items while GazoPa use it to create a new image search engine! :-)

Related Links:
TC50: Bojam introduces remote musical collaboration, and more from the rich media panel
TC50: Gazopa Searches for Images Similar To Other Images