Mountain View, California — Google’s relentless acquisition of emerging technology companies continues apace, as the search engine giant’s buying spree continued with its recent purchase of “Quicksee,” an Israel-based company that develops interactive video mapping technologies based on user-filmed videos with geolocation services, the companies said on Tuesday, confirming media reports.
The acquisition of Israeli startup by Google is reported to be valued at around $10 million, though neither company would comment on the issue. The startup develops software which empowers users to create 360 degree landscape scenery and video tours from their own footage.
“We are thrilled to announce that Quiksee has been acquired by Google,” Quiksee’s website said. “Both Google and Quiksee share the same innovative vision.”
A spokeswoman for Google said it was a small deal.
Quicksee is a location-based interactive video platform that lets end users quickly build “Virtual Reality” tours from real world areas like inside buildings or where Google’s streetview camera-toting cars cannot go places, “allowing your friends to fully explore your places in a unique virtual environment that is just like being there,” according to the company.
For example, you would film the roof of your building with a conventional camcorder and the software would stitch together a 360-degree moving panorama. This user-generated video is then uploaded to Quiksee’s server with geo-location and directional data to show off a property to friends or potential buyers, and can also be inserted into Facebook and MySpace pages.
Quiksee places in a Google map for people who might be hunting for a 360 degree panoramic view of that area. The site provides instructions on how to shoot the video to make it work with the software.
Yossi Matias, managing director of Google’s Israel development center, said in a statement Google was committed to continue investing in Israel, “both by expanding and deepening our activity as well as by continuing to strengthen our collaboration with companies and start-ups in Israel.”
It is a perfect match for a number of Google projects, including Street View and business listings within Google Maps, and Quicksee’s founders confirmed they will be joining Google’s Geo team as soon as the deal is finalized. Now, the search engine leader will likely add the tool to its repertoire of data gathering methods for better geo-indexing the globe. In particular, businesses will be able to utilize Quiksee’s VR tools to build out their Google Places profile.
Also, the possibility of putting video inside Street View will undoubtedly raise concern among privacy advocates, although authorizing businesses, hotels, or real estate agents to easily upload video of their private buildings could be a pretty easy win for Google’s local-business listing services.
Quicksee is Google’s second acquisition in Israel in six months. It acquired web gadgets provider LabPixies in April for an estimated $25 million. Quiksee raised $3.5 million from venture investors Ofer Hi-Tech and Docor International and attracted some funding from angel investors as well.
Google continues to purchase companies at a dizzying rate, although $10 million is not much of an exit for the kind of funding the company has raised, but revenue is estimated to be minor. Besides, most of the search engine giant’s recent purchases have focused on either social-media or search.