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Google has purchased BumpTop, which enables 3D multitouch desktop on Windows and Mac computers.
BumpTop uses “pile creation techniques” to shuffle and stack documents as if they were cards in a deck.
The app was originally created for use with a pen-style stylus, but the startup added multitouch last September, no doubt seeing where the trend was headed. Hello, iPad.
This video makes the multitouch we currently enjoy on Apple’s iPhone and iPad and Android smartphones seem like child’s play.
I especially love how BumpTop CEO Anand Agarawala dryly showed how users can crop out ex-girlfriends and upload the new pics to Facebook. Classy!
BumpTop is really cool and one has no trouble envisioning this running on an Android-based tablet.
Wellington Financial scored the scoop May 1 after finding this blog post from the company:
Asked for more information about the purchase, a Google spokesperson told me: “We’re happy to welcome the BumpTop team to Google, but we don’t have any specific information to share.”
BumpTop is just the latest in a string of small purchases, each one seemingly more obscure than the last.
Google just nabbed LabPixies April 28.
Prior to LabPixies, it’s been a whirlwind of one Web startup after the other since August, when Google bid for On2 Technologies.
Others in the list:
- Display ad provider Teracent
- Real-time collaboration app maker AppJet
- Social search engine Aardvark
- Mobile mail app maker ReMail
- Collaboration software maker DocVerse
- Web photo editor Picnik
- Video platform maker Episodic
- Visual search provider Plink
- Chip maker Agnilux
Google’s $750 million blockbuster bid for mobile ad maker AdMob has yet to be approved and may well be struck down by the Federal Trade Commission.
That won’t stop Google from buying more businesses to advance its Web conquering strategy … the Google Creep.