Think of Pixazza’s new service as “Google AdSense for pictures,” and you’ll get the big idea. Pixazza, financed in part by Google, enables Web site visitors to mouse over product shots and other images to find out more about the products (cost, mainly).
Pixazza uses what it says is a proprietary, “crowdsourcing platform,” which is a new buzzword for me. What the company means is that it’s enlisted a distributed workforce of product experts to match products inside an image with similar items merchandised by its network of advertisers.
“Pixazza’s unique technical advantage is its crowdsourcing platform,” says CTO James Everingham. “No computer algorithm can identify a black pair of Jimmy Choo boots from the 2009 fall collection as well as a person. Rather than rely on computer algorithms, our platform enlists product experts to drive the process.”
Pixazza is not a shopping destination. It’s a service affiliated Web publishers use to give their visitors product info and then send them to a product page where they can read more about it and buy.
Amazon, Overstock, Zappos and a few other digital merchants have signed up for the program.
