March 2, 2010

Google has acquired Picnik, whose Web-based application lets people import and edit photos in a browser.

"We're not announcing any significant changes to Picnik today, though we'll be working hard on integration and new features," wrote Brian Axe, a Google product management director, in an official blog on Monday.

Picnik integrates with popular photo-management and sharing services like Google's Picasa, Yahoo's Flickr, Photobucket and the photo album components from Facebook and MySpace. Google intends to preserve and nurture those partnerships, according to Axe.

Having access to Google's technical resources will result in faster and better improvements to the Picnik service, Picnik said in a separate blog post.

"Google processes petabytes of data every day, and with their worldwide infrastructure and world-class team, it is truly the best home we could have found. Under the Google roof we'll reach more people than ever before, impacting more lives and making more photos more awesome," reads the blog post.

Picnik, founded in 2006, was privately held and has about 20 employees. It will remain in Seattle but move to Google's offices in that city. Its service has various versions, including free and fee-based options.

Picnik's site attracts almost 40 million visits per month, with each visit lasting an average of 17 minutes, according to the company's Web site.

Source:-http://www.businessweek.com