The Web 2.0 venture capital market is still alive and well with Riya Inc. raising $4 million from Leapfrog Ventures and BlueRun Ventures. I'm always intrigued by VC investments in companies trying to break into an already-crowded market. For people unfamiliar with Riya, it is developing an online photo search service - a market where major players such as Flickr (Yahoo) and (Google) also play. Riya aims to establish a foothold with artificial intelligence and photo-recognition technology that can apparently distinguish between twins. The service is still in alpha (invitation-only) but I'm hoping to play with it soon. Michael Arrington (a.ka. TechCrunch) is hoping to stoke interest in Riya by hosting another one of his increasingly popular launch party this Friday.