Google Acquires Facial Recognition And Augmented Reality Company Viewdle

Update: All Things D is sharing a statement from the company indicating that Google’s Motorola Mobility has indeed acquired Viewdle, under undisclosed terms:

“Motorola Mobility today announced that it has acquired Viewdle, a leading imaging & gesture recognition company,” a Motorola representative said in a statement. “Motorola and Viewdle have an existing commercial agreement and have been collaborating for some time.”

Original article: CNET is reporting that Google is “close to completing” a deal to buy facial recognition technology provider Viewdle. The company offers photo tagging technology.

Obviously, this would make a great deal of sense in relation to Google+, especially considering that Facebook has acquired Face.com, which provides similar technology.

Facebook bought Instagram, and Google countered that with Nik Software.

Neither Google nor Viewdle is commenting on the alleged deal, so we’ll have to leave it in the rumor pile for the time being. We’ll update if we learn more.