Riya

search
Image-search startup Riya calls Google's plans "largely impossible"
Google-backed researchers Shumeet Baluja (pictured) and Yushi Jing presented the Mountain View company's latest image search and recognition efforts to an audience in Beijing, China on Thursday. VisualRank attempts to do for images what PageRank has done for typical Web pages — rank them in search results according to "authority," which will presumably increase the relevance of results. Problem is, their limited success came at a cost Google is typically loathe to pay: 150 units of homo sapiens who helped sort and rank the images by hand. Munjal Shah, CEO of image-search startup Riya, remarked to the Times: "I think what they're trying to accomplish is largely impossible." Funny, because large-scale, advanced image recognition is what Marissa Mayer says will solve Street View's privacy conundrum.

1:00 PM on Mon Apr 28 2008
By Jackson West
660 views, 3 comments

Latest by DanielTunkelang: I read the full paper ([www.www2008.org]), and I'm a bit surprised that they're going after product image search for popular more »
Silicon Valley startup Riya, discovering that rising wages mean that engineers based in India are no longer a bargain, joins the ranks of companies deciding to stop offshoring. [Computerworld]

2 comments
lifewatch
Specter of Riya still haunts Like.com
Despite a great deal of initial buzz-hype, Munjal Shah's Riya photo recognizer deflated into irrelevance in a matter of months. However, after reapplying the same tech to visual shopping searches, Shah's Like.com has proven a boon for those who must know where Forest Whitaker gets his neckties. Mockery aside, it's a much better use of the software with an obvious revenue hook. Even so, it must be grating to have Riya still stinking up the place, reputation-wise, as in this Business 2.0 article on the benefits of failure. "Just eight months after watching Riya sink like a stone," begins the paragraph introducing Like.com's relative success. Hey, leave Riya alone; according to its website, it's still in beta.

9:00 AM on Thu Mar 1 2007
By Chris Mohney
1,222 views, 1 comment

Latest by MunjalShah: Valley Wag... I don't know if you understand why we keep marketing our business failure of Riya (by being more »
riya
Riya launches Like.com: That world-changing image search technology is now a shopping site
Remember Riya, the image search site that was going to Change The World by searching images not through tags, but through analyzing the actual content of a photo? Well now you can use it to buy handbags. More »

10:25 AM on Wed Nov 8 2006
By Nick Douglas
230 views, 1 comment
tara hunt
Pinko Marketer quits Riya (or was she fired?)
Will the Pinko Marketer get deported? More »
tara hunt
Is the Pinko Marketer leaving Riya?
Tara Hunt is leaving her spot as marketer at Web 2.0 startup Riya, according to a rumor. More »

6:42 PM on Wed May 31 2006
By Nick Douglas
171 views, Comment

photo sharing
Embargo breakers: In ten days, you can finally share photos on the Net
If only there were photo-sharing sites on the web — wouldn't that be pretty cool? More »

1:32 PM on Fri May 5 2006
By ndouglas
423 views, 1 comment
disaster
Oracle's HQ stands on quaking ground
One hundred years after a quake rocked San Francisco, everyone wants to know: if another big one hit, who would get crushed? More »

6:36 PM on Tue Apr 18 2006
By ndouglas
286 views, Comment
larry and sergey
That guy with Larry and Sergey...wossname...the President
You know that old joke — "My friend Steve knows everyone. Yesterday I saw him with the pope. A guy asked me, 'Who's that guy with Steve?'" More »

8:51 PM on Thu Apr 6 2006
By ndouglas
276 views, 1 comment
bill gates
"Riya thinks I'm Bill Gates"
Photo-recognition site Riya boasts a million photos two days after its launch — all of them being auto-analyzed and tagged by name. But it's still in beta, so inevitably someone's gonna get mistagged. On the left, Bill Gates. On the right, Thomas McColgan, tagged Bill Gates. More »

7:17 AM on Fri Mar 24 2006
By ndouglas
132 views, Comment