Technology lets you copy Victoria Beckham's look in two clicks

July 10, 6:10 PMTechie to Trendy ExaminerAsa Murphy

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Have you ever seen a dress or a scarf on a friend, which you envied with a sudden intensity?  Women can relate to this more than men. Not only do women secretly admire our girlfriends’ clothes, shoes and accessories, we are convinced they will look much better on us, though no such words dare ever be uttered.

How rewarding would it be if you could buy the clothes off your girlfriend’s back? Better yet, what better ego-booster than buying the sunglasses seen on Lindsey Lohan recently, as photographed by the paparazzi?

Yesterday I spoke with a new company which allows you to get a step closer to your favorite celebs, by buying their clothes and accessories. No, not the real clothes of course. But close enough. Pixazza, which was founded in 2008 and launched in March, is a company which can turn images on the web into shopping links.

See a pair of boots you like on Victoria Beckham? Click on the Pixazza shopping tag and you will be looking at the same pair (or a close equivalent), which you can buy on the spot, provided  you still have a job.

Pixazza is the brainchild of founder and current CTO James Everingham, who had worked for Netscape in the ‘90s and later served as CTO at LiveOps. Mr. Everingham recruited the same team of technologists which worked together in both companies, to launch Pixazza. Bob Lisbonne, Pixazza’s CEO, is a venture capitalist-turned-CEO, who joined the company in August 2008.

Mr. Everingham, an expert in the field of image recognition, says his company’s technology uses the power of the crowds. Pixazza has crowd sources across the country, and more applying on their site each day, to tag images. The images get associated with products available in Pixazza’s inventory of over 3 million items. Once Pixazza moderators approve a product match, the road opens to four things happening.

One, any human on the planet can now click on Victoria Beckham’s shoes and be directed to the Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s or even Zappos site where the same or a very close pair is available.

Two, Bloomingdales (or Macy’s or Zappos) get at a minimum an eyeball, and in the best case a real sale.

Three, the publisher whose site published Poshe’s picture gets a cut.

And four, someone among the crowd in Idaho or Minnesota, who had the patience to search through millions of inventory items for a product match, makes some money too.

What’s not to like about this business model? Publishers, who have been trying to find ways to be profitable online, are lining up to talk to Pixazza, says CEO Bob Lisbonne. Take a look at imnotobsessed. Is it surprising that Google has invested in Pixazza?

One of Pixazza’s smartest moves was avoiding becoming another shopping engine, although the technology was available. There are plenty of shopping engines on the web, and although they are well known as a destination of users with a high intent to buy, they are no longer a novelty and will eventually have a hard time differentiating themselves.

Pixazza, which is a platform for publishers and not a web destination, is already growing fast. By the time Posh Beckham asks for her cut of each sale, Pixazza will likely be on to a different industry; interior design, sports and electronics are next in line. “We want to provide information to people through images”, says James Everingham.

My needs being more basic, I have to act fast. I saw a Bruno outfit I can’t wait to get my hands on.