Ondrej Holzman Google continues to buy developers of popular applications. His latest acquisition was the team Nik Software, behind the photo editing app Snapseed. The price for which Nik Software went under the wing of the search giant was not disclosed.
Nik Software has out Snapseed also responsible for other photo software such as Color Efex Pro or Dfine for both Mac and Windows, however, it was the Snapseed iOS application that was the main motivation why Google made this acquisition.
After all, Snapseed became Apple's iPad app of the year in 2011 and gained over nine million users during its first year on sale. Of course, it does not have such a user base as, for example, Instagram, but the principle of editing photos using various filters and other effects is the same.
Google has a clear intention with its "new" application - it wants to integrate it into Google+ and thus compete with Facebook and Instagram. Already on its social network, Google offers the possibility of uploading high-resolution photos, several editing functions and even filters. However, Snapseed will take these options to the next level, and thus Facebook could get a significant competitor. The only problem for Google is that its social network is not used by that many users.
As for the acquisition itself, Nik Software will move to Google headquarters in Mountain View, where it will work directly on Google+.
We are pleased to announce that Nik Software has been acquired by Google. For nearly 17 years, we've stuck to our "photo first" motto as we've worked to develop the best photo editing tools. We've always wanted to share our passion for photography with everyone, and with the help of Google, we hope to enable millions more people to create amazing images.
We are incredibly grateful for your support and hope you will join us at Google.
All users can do now is hope that Google takes Snapseed's acquisition like Facebook did with Instagram and keeps the app running. It didn't go well with Sparrow or Meeb...
I doubt it, Google is Destroyer #1... I think they are making it clear that SnapSeed is ending and even if it doesn't, there will be no updates... Too bad... Google is already annoying me...
Ouch… I hope Snapseed stays. Well, even if not, I have it installed on both my iPhone and Mac :) If Google continues to update it, I won't download it, because my hatred of Google is insurmountable :) And most importantly, there are many other great applications with the same capabilities … Like, for example, Analogue
Well, that's in the bag.. whatever Google buys, it will either die or they will kill it straight away, see meebo... :/
oh god no… :(((
I recently bought snapseed for mac. If I had known, I wouldn't have done it.
Well Snapseed is great, but I wonder what they will do with the rest of Niku's portfolio. Silver Efex Pro is one of the most used software for B&W photos.
Well, if they stop developing Silver Efex Pro 2, I'll be really upset... I don't like what Google is doing with acquisitions at all.
On the other hand, he has full and legitimate right to do so. It just makes me sad that young and predatory companies end up like this... But if the amount was similar to that for Instagram, I'm not surprised either...
Well, that's really a tragedy. So something else will be used.
Do they want to buy every app on the app store? And put the suffix from G- to Googl- in front of it? I'm sure Google won't bother with anything other than incorporating it into their overall advertising campaign….
I hope Google cuts that app to piss off as many Apple users as possible.
It's not good what Google is doing. Apple should pay attention to this, otherwise the biggest advantage for their devices, which are applications, will disappear for a while. I don't use Snapseed, but it's well made and quick to work with. For more decent editing, there are better things like Photoforge2 or iPhoto in the AppStore.