jeffreydemers.com

In a bid to expand its ever-growing power in the world of the Internet and technology, Google has acquired Plink, a British search engine. The amount has not been made public, but one would have to believe it the figure was an attractive sum, at least in the minds of Plink founders Mark Cummins and James Philbin, who launched the search engine only months ago. Surprisingly, Plink marks the first time that Google has acquired a British product of its nature, although it most likely won't be the last. While Google has certainly been successful in the conventional search-engine market, Plink adds a little twist to the game. Rather than using words or phrases as search subjects, Plink uses visuals instead. An example of the search engine's possibilities is its PlinkArt application, which is available on Google Android smart phones. Users can photograph a piece of art, submit it through a search query, and PlinkArt tries to find a match with actual data on the artwork. The work for Plink founders Cummins and Philbin has just started, however, as Google has requested their services in the further development of Google Goggles, an application that allows users to take photos with their mobile phones and then perform related searches for more information. Although the market for such an application might be somewhat limited compared to the mainstream, it should be interesting to see how Google tweaks and improves it in the future.