Google announced that it has acquired the mobile startup Bump Technologies. The app, Bump allows users to tap phones together physically to share info and data. According to tech blog AllThingsD, the transaction is reported to be at least $30 million and possibly as much as $60 million.
The acquisition also features Bump’s photo sharing app called Flock. This app uses geolocation to determine which Facebook friends are close by, and prompts the user to create a photo album that can be shared with that friend. The idea behind the app is that not all photos may be shared via Social Media sites, but with Flock users can privately share photo albums with each other. The photo app also features a simplistic approach to the photo sharing process, which reduces the level of user interaction to upload photos. Flock simplifies the photo-sharing process and avoids the hassle of setting privacy parameters when uploading photos.
TechCrunch reported that the acquisition of Bump might in fact be motivated by the acquisition of the photo-sharing app Flock. Google might consider adopting the photo-sharing app’s technologies as a part of Google+ and could use the app to potentially compete with Facebook and Dropbox’s photo services.
The acquisition of both technologies also includes multiple mobile communication patents. These patents could allow nearby mobile devices to sync up by using an app that senses two devices that share similar readings. The combination of these patents used in Android along with Bump and Flock might provide Google products with distinctive, and differentiating features.