Like.com formerly known as Riya.com launched today. A new concept that makes a lot of affiliates (including myself) just watch in awe and envy :).
Image pattern/face Recognition, a strength of Riya is used in a new innovative way to identify objects on images, such as the latest blink-blink or Gucci hand bag of your favorite celebrity and search for look alkies in a large product database. Matches are displayed with the Image that you can compare the original with the look-alike and decide if it is close enough for you and buy it right there.
I think that people that are into this kind of stuff will dig it big time. Imagine the celebrity fan, gossip lover and imitation buying customer who competes with like minded friends about who the latest news has or newest accessory worn by a star at a recent event. Just go to Like.com
The Celebrities are currently pre-defined. There is no option to upload a picture of your favorite celebrity, a feature to come I risk to speculate. The Celebrities to choose from today are: Mischa Barton, Halle Berry, Beyonce, Jessica Biel, Rachel Bilson, Diddy, Fergie, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Lopez, Sienna Miller, Brad Pitt, Jessica Simpson
Coming Soon: The Olson Twins, Paris Hilton, Jessica Alba and Nicole Richie
The Site covers currently products like Jewelry, Handbags, Shoes and Watches. Merchants can register and submit products to Like.com. This should cause some boom for the small and specialized merchants that are making replica of celebrity jewelry and accessories.
It will be interesting to watch how the Site and the available services develop. Under pressure are for sure the editors from Riya that have to make sure that the latest pictures of the featured celebrities are available quickly on the site to not muss on a potentially large business. Agreements with the celebrities would certainly help. Imagine Oscar night and you see the celebrities line up for the show and promenade on the red carpet and at the same time can a user go to Like.com, see the exact same outfit of the star and available products that match. Overnight Shipping and voila, next evening ready to show off in front of friends …
“Did you see JLo yesterday and the gorgeous handbag she was wearing? .. I sure did, you mean THIS ONE, right?”
Gold, pure Gold. Marketing Gold was found in California!
* Like.com – Visual Search (alpha) – “Likeness Searchâ„¢ our aLike Look Book to inspire your personal style”
* The official Like.com Blog
More Links
* Breaking News at the Wall Street Journal (for subscribers)
* Story Coverage at Techcrunch
* Post by Brian Smith at Comparison Engines
* Video Interview with Riya’s CEO Munjal Shah at Scobleizer
Background Information
* PodCast – Chris welcomes Munjal Shah CEO of Riya – Webmasterradio.fm , Next Stuff Now 12/31/2005; Chris Tolles interview with Munjal Shah, CEO & Co-Founder of Riya
* Riya Coverage on The Daily Search Cast
* Google/Riya Acquisition rumors 11/2005
Cheers,
Carsten Cumbrowski
Internet Marketer and Web Developer from Cumbrowski.com – the Internet Marketing Resources Portal
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