Google certainly hasn’t been shy about letting the world know that they’re a competitor in numerous product fields – first and foremost against Apple for the mobile phone crown with Android, against Microsoft for the desktop space with Chrome OS, and most recently against Facebook with their highly functional Google+ social network. Now Google has made themselves out to a be a competitor against one of the most popular and unique social networks of today – Instagram.

Google has declared war by purchasing Nik Software, developers of photography app Snapseed, which works very similarly to Instagram – though, of course, not nearly as popular. Rumor has it that the Snapseed team in particular will be relocated to Google’s Google+ team in Mountain View, where work will presumably begin on integrating the tech to work within the Google+ ecosystem.

Google’s got a long, hard battle to wage if this is the game they want to play – Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram was recently approved, merging Instagram’s insanely addicting application mixed with Facebook’s stockade of cash. Goole’s got the cash, but it remains to be seen if they’ve got the product.

Update: We originally incorrectly dubbed Snapseed a “social” photography app, which is incorrect. We apologize for any misunderstandings.

Via: The Verge
Source: Nik Software