GOOGLE BUYING RIYA?

Tech blogs are buzzing about Riya possibly getting bought out by Google. TechCrunch has the best summary and links to other posts. Oddly enough TechCrunch is hosting Riya's launch party this Friday, which I'm attending.

This is the type of acquisition I expected Google to make versus Yahoo!. Riya has a face recognition technology that allows to you search through photos for specific people. A bit more advanced than a calendar system, so something Google would have an interest in buying rather than building on their own.

Rumors are flying this morning that Riya (a killer photo facial recognition startup) has been or is being acquired by Google in the $40 million range. See Om Malik, Niall Kennedy and Paul Kedrosky.

Even though everyone is blogging about it, this is nothing more than a rumor at this point. It is a rumor, however, that has been confirmed to me by employees of companies that were also apparently in the hunt for Riya but dropped out after the price became too rich.

These rumors will certainly make Riya’s launch party at my house tomorrow night even more interesting. (full post)