The latest from TechCrunch
- Looking For Stock Photos? Compare Prices With The SpiderPic Search Engine
- Live From The Apple Tablet Event
- Technology And Materials Marketplace Inventables Scores $2 Million From True Ventures
| Looking For Stock Photos? Compare Prices With The SpiderPic Search Engine | Top |
| Ginipic has partnered with Picitup to launch SpiderPic . That’s a lot of pics, and it will undoubtedly be not much of a surprise if I tell you the product has something to do with pictures. Stock photography, to be more specifpic specific. SpiderPic is essentially a meta-search tool for stock photos that aggregates relevant shots from a host of third-party providers and lists results in one crisp interface, pricing from all (eight) suppliers included. As pointed out on the Examples page, these price differences can be quite huge even for identical imagery, so if you find yourself regularly buying stock photos, this is a service you might consider bookmarking right now. When you do a search for say, tablet , SpiderPic returns as much information as possible about each photo, and refer potential buyers to the source for actual purchases of photos or to get more detailed information such as promotions, special offers, and specific license restrictions. The only thing that bugs me is that the prices or price range aren’t actually displayed when you get the list of search results, which means you have to click through every time. Ginipic / Spiderpic co-founder Lior Weinstein tells me: The technical challenge behind SpiderPic’s comparison feature, was to create a system that you can use only an image, with no text as a reference, and search in real-time between millions of images and return results within split seconds. We decided to partner with Picitup to supply the image recognition technology since they are by far the best out there – they serve top tier players such as eBay and Shopping.com. SpiderPic also offers browser extensions to enable people to search and compare prices quickly from whatever browser they’re using (though the Google Chrome extension is still in the works). SpiderPic plans on rolling out a similar image search feature soon, which will enable buyers to take any image they found on the web and find out whether the same or a similar image one is available for purchase for commercial purposes on the various agencies they support (Fotolia, iStockPhoto, BigStockPhoto, etc.). With the tool, the startup intends to make it possible for buyers to use any tool on the web for searching images, without the need to worry about copyright infringement. Weinstein admitted to me that the agencies are not all happy about the service, understandably. He says he has even received e-mails from some demanding that he remove their search results from SpiderPic, but that he isn’t too worried about and that the same thing happened when the first regular online retail comparison shopping engines launched several years ago. You can read up on Ginipic, which is a desktop application for searching images across photo sharing services, in my earlier review of the product. | |
| Live From The Apple Tablet Event | Top |
| We’re here in San Francisco for Apple’s event today where they’re expected to unveil their new tablet computer which may or may not be known as the iPad, iSlate, iBook, iTablet, the Apple Tablet or some other variation. The event starts at 10 AM PT. Be sure to check back in. For now, follow the CrunchGear guys do a little pre-show commentary starting at 9:30 AM PT. | |
| Technology And Materials Marketplace Inventables Scores $2 Million From True Ventures | Top |
| Ever wonder where inventors and companies find the technical materials needed to manufacture their products? Traditionally, inventors could find materials at trade shows or could order the products via trade magazines. Unfortunately, both channels have many drawbacks, including travel, connectivity and accessibility. Chicago-based Inventables has entered the scene has an online marketplace for materials where vendors can advertise their products and engineers and designers can easily find these materials. And the site has just closed a $2 million funding round from True Ventures. Inventables allows vendors to create online profiles for their products in order to generate sales leads. Customers, ranging from mega companies such as Procter and Gamble to individual inventors, who are looking to source new materials and technologies can browse through these profiles and submit inquiries about products they are interested in. Each vendor profile includes exact details on composition, makeup and use of the material, commercial uses for the material, similar materials and more. Products range from electroluminescent fabric to concentrated cheese flavor powder. The site currently lists over 1500 different materials and technologies. As a vendor, (e.g. Dupont, RTP Company, MDI Products), you are notified by email each time your Inventables profile receives a new inquiry and given an opportunity to purchase the corresponding sales lead from Inventables. It’s free for vendors to list their products; they only pay Inventables for specific leads that they are interested in. The essence of Inventables is that it helps vendors develop “sales leads worth their time”. The site’s cognitive technology, remembers and “learns” what kinds of materials the potential buyers are interested in and will suggests similar products based on this. The investment from True Ventures is going to be used towards further product development and to hire additional software engineers. Launched in January, the site doesn’t include a ton of bells and whistles and has a fairly simple userface; but it’s easy to navigate and serves a genuine purpose in the materials and technology industry. And Inventables is already gaining the attention of Fortune 500 companies and prominent brands such as Palm, Microsoft, PING Golf Clubs, and Kraft Foods. | |
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