SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Superfish, Inc., a developer of visual search technology, today announced the successful conclusion of beta testing and general availability of Superfish Visual Search for the Web, a resource for developers to quickly and easily add consumer product comparison functionality to their browser add-ons, extensions or toolbars. Two of the 12 beta test participants include Surf Canyon, a Web browser add-on that adds a layer of intelligence on top of Google, Bing or other search engine results pages, and FastestFox, a Web browser add-on that increases a user’s efficiency by making common Web browsing tasks more convenient.
Superfish Visual Search for the Web is easily integrated by developers into browser add-ons, extensions or toolbars with a single line of javascript code. In most cases, it only takes about an hour to complete the code insertion. Once installed, Superfish Visual Search for the Web enhances their apps by displaying similar and identical product results when a user mouses over a product image on any Web page. Search results are pulled from an index of more than 150 million products from the world’s top retailers, including Amazon.com, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Macy’s, eBay, Toys R Us and others.
“We previously relied on Amazon affiliate links to monetize FastestFox,” said Yongqian Li, CEO of FastestFox. “Superfish provides a new avenue for monetization. The financial benefits are great, but I am especially pleased with the way it has helped me deliver even more value to my users.”
Browser add-on, extension and toolbar developers have long been challenged with monetizing their hard work. Unlike mobile developers, there is no App Store equivalent for the purchase or subscription to their apps, and users have become accustomed to not paying for them. This has left developers limited options for monetization, such as intrusive advertising that diminishes the user experience or voluntary contributions in a virtual tip jar that is usually empty even for the most popular add-ons, extensions and toolbars. As a result, the top add-on developers can have tens of millions of users, but have little to show for it in terms of revenue.
Superfish Visual Search for the Web instantly monetizes add-ons, extensions and toolbars, delivering immediate revenue. For every user click on a similar product displayed by Superfish, the developer receives a commission. The service also delivers a useful new feature for users, enabling developers to attract new users and offer existing users a fresh experience that decreases churn.
“Superfish is squarely focused on the end-user experience,” said Mark Cramer, CEO of Surf Canyon. “The Visual Search for the Web platform adds a great new feature to Surf Canyon that our users love, fits in perfectly with the core functionality of our app, and we don’t have to dedicate any time to manage/maintain it.”
Superfish Technology
The Superfish Visual Search Engine is the first and only technology to analyze an image algorithmically and deliver similar and identical images in real time without the need for text tags. This ability to deliver similar image results is an extremely complex mathematical problem (orders of magnitude more complex than delivering identical image results) that Superfish has solved through a proprietary patent-pending algorithmic process.
Developed over a five year period, the Superfish Visual Search Engine algorithm is based on massive scale and extremely fast computer processing that only recently has become available. It analyzes the local features of an image and the relationships of objects to each other, extracting the “Visual DNA” that can be matched to other images in an index. This process can be likened to Pandora’s Music Genome Project that analyzes a song and delivers similar songs.
“While other visual search techniques rely heavily on text tags attached to images or the use of human taggers to identify the content of an image, the Superfish Visual Search Engine is completely algorithmic and scalable,” said Adi Pinhas, co-founder of Superfish, Inc. “It can also deliver visually similar results for “ad hoc” and 3D images (such as images taken with a mobile phone) under a second – a task that has consistently challenged existing visual search technologies.”
In addition to providing “white label” versions of their technology for developers, Superfish also created an add-on version of their product that’s available directly to consumers. Named Window Shopper, this add-on can be downloaded for free at www.superfish.com. Window Shopper was originally released as a proof of concept but, in less than a year, more than seven million people have experienced its unique visual search functionality. Over two million product searches are currently being served each day by Superfish – a figure that is growing at approximately 30% month over month. Click-through rates range as high as 12%.
To learn more, developers can contact Superfish at info at Superfish dot com.
About Superfish
Superfish is a visual search company that has developed the first and only technology to analyze an image algorithmically and deliver similar and identical images in real time without the need for text tags or any human intervention. This ability to deliver similar image results is an extremely complex mathematical problem (orders of magnitude more complex than delivering identical image results) that Superfish has solved through a proprietary patent-pending algorithmic process. Initial applications of the Superfish Visual Search Engine are in the consumer-focused Web browser add-on “Window Shopper” product comparison tool, and Superfish Visual Search for the Web, a platform that enables browser add-on, extension and toolbar developers to instantly monetize their apps with a product comparison feature. Over two million product searches are currently being served each day by Superfish.