Google Acquires City Guides App Jetpac

JetpacCityGuides_iPhoneGoogle has acquired the company behind Jetpac, an iPhone app that crowdsources photos from Instagram to populate city guides.

The apps deep learning software was noted for its sophistication – the app could scan photos to evaluate the businesses and venues featured, noting whether visitors were tourists or locals, whether a bar was dog-friendly and how sophisticated the place appeared to be. The company even trained the system to find hipster spots by counting the number of mustaches and plaid shirts present.

Google has not disclosed how much was paid to acquire the company, but has confirmed that the app will be pulled from Apples App Store in the next few days, and support for the service will be discontinued on 15 September.