“Riya 2.0 On the Way” is the headline on TechCrunch:
It will be a “visual search engine” - give Riya an image and it will return image results that are similar from across the web…When it’s ready, users will be able to search on an image (the easiest way will be via a browser plugin to search right from the page containing the images). See a rug on ebay that has a pattern you like? See other rugs from across the web containing similar patterns. Riya will make money if the result you click on is from another ecommerce company - Riya pockets the referral fee.
A pretty good idea, and a niche that I don’t believe has been filled by any of the Big Four search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Ask and MSN/Windows Live). Which means…positioning for the flip, the tried and true liquidity strategy for any Web 2.0 startup. They’ve already been the subject of speculation on that topic, even before they launched, and this recasting of the core service looks likely to further heighten all the blog chatter.
[update: forgot to link to TechCrunch]
