Google buys social city-guide app maker JetPac
Google has acquired social travel app startup JetPac, which specialises in analysing public Instagram photos to provide unique contextual information to create mobile city guides.
The app began as a social travel guide on the iPad, but later developed its use of Instagram data to create a visual city guide of more than 6,000 cities worldwide.
Using the free app people can find things such as the bars where women go, the best views or where the hipsters are.
It also claims it can “spot lipstick, blue sky views, hipster mustaches and more” all through advanced image processing on billions of photos.
The San Francisco-based company has created city guides for places as far reaching as Kathmandu.
A statement on JetPac’s website reads: “We're joining Google! Thank you for all your interest and support. We look forward to working on exciting projects with our colleagues at Google.
"We'll be removing Jetpac's apps from the App Store in the coming days, and ending support for them on 9/15.”