Oracle, Live Picture team up to make Web eye candy
Oracle Corp. and Live Picture Corp. are aiming to make Oracle's database software more eye-pleasing with the integration of Live Picture's imaging software.
On Wednesday the two companies announced Oracle's (Nasdaq:ORCL) next-generation Internet database software, Oracle8i, will include easy access to Live Picture's Image Server. The Live Picture Server, aimed primarily at e-commerce providers, allows a Web site to serve high-resolution images without the use of large image files.
Integration with Oracle's popular database software could prove a boost for the five-year-old startup, which has former Apple Computer Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL) CEO John Sculley as its chairman.
"The first truly compelling e-commerce demonstration I saw was a John Sculley demonstration of Image Server ... it changed what had been to me a static, uncompelling shopping experience into something that worked," said David Strehlow, Live Picture vice president of business development. "This allows Image Server to make use of the power, data associations, storage capability, and the referencing of the database."
Targets: Online publishing, e-commerce
Oracle8i, which the database maker is promoting for use in online publishing, Web hosting and e-commerce, will include a media-integration component called Intermedia. Oracle touts Intermedia as making it easier for Web publishers to manipulate all kinds of image files along with other kinds of data.
Wednesday's announcement means that Intermedia will support Live Picture's Zoom image format, theoretically making it a small matter for users of Oracle 8i to also build Zoom images into their Web sites.
"With this partnership ... in an e-commerce application, the publisher will be able to use Live Picture information," said James Steiner, Oracle director of product marketing. "It's stored in the database, but rendered through the Image Server."
Oracle8i and Intermedia are slated for release by the end of the year.
Intermedia will also integrate the image file formats of several other partners, to be announced in November, Steiner said.
Zoom-able Web images
Live Picture is among a handful of companies focusing on making Web pages more engaging for users -- especially shoppers -- without making them slow to download.
Images served by the Image Server are the same file size as a normal JPEG image, but users can click on them to zoom in on a particular detail, in high resolution.
The product is aimed at the e-commerce market, but can be used for any kind of image-intensive application, LivePicture says. For example, NASA Tuesday said it will use Image Server to present images from space.
Live Picture is based in Campbell, Calif., and has offices in Europe, Israel and Japan, with more than 180 employees worldwide. Customers include Universal Studios, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and Gap Online Store.