The proposition behind GetFugu is a simple one – you should be able to point your mobile phone camera at something and buy it. And you should be able to say the name of something into your phone and buy it. The “See it, Say it, Buy it” promise at the heart of this augmented reality search app has had a rocky 2009, with legal controversy raising its head in early October. But GetFugu seems to have weathered the storm, and has just announced $800,000 in funding.
What’s GetFugu?
It’s an Augmented Reality search engine combining visual and voice search, and the entire service is hung on brands and logos. The idea is that you should be able to access your favourite brands whenever you want… and that brands should pay for this service. So let’s say, for example, that Dr. Pepper had payed GetFugu to be included in their database. This would mean that if a consumer loaded the app and said “Dr. Pepper” to their phone, or pointed their camera at a Dr. Pepper logo, the GetFugu search service would kick into action. It will send you links, information and purchasing options for the brand, and point you towards the nearest stores and the best brand deals with a location-based map service.
What was the controversy?
There was a company called SpongeTech that invested $4 million in GetFugu in September, and then sued to reclaim $1.75 million of that in October. There have been counter-claims from GetFugu citing libel and defamation… frankly the whole thing is pretty mucky.
But despite this, GetFugu seems to be barrelling along. The app is now available on iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices – and the money is still coming. Along with the $800,000 this week, there have been other multi-million dollar licenses announced since the SpongeTech bid.
What we think?
Augmented Reality is pretty hot right now, although GetFugu can only be described that way pretty loosely. Image recognition and voice search isn’t technically “augmenting” reality, it’s just adding links to it. AR usually refers to services that add a graphical information layer over reality via your mobile screen. Not that I’m knocking GetFugu, mind you. It’s a great idea.
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OMG GetFugu is the largest fraud out there! Carl Freer, the genius?!? behind the Gizmondo nightmare, is behind this shell game as well.
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Say what you want about Freer, he has the vision and drive to make it happen. The model is interesting and the space huge.
I had very modest expectations but was shocked to see the speed and agility of the application on both my G1 and Mytouch phones. Haven’t tried it on my Blackberry yet..