Nearly everywhere I've turned over the past week, people have been talking about how much Google paid for the online photo editing service Picnik.

I've been on the hunt myself trying to track down the number, talking to bankers, lawyers and entrepreneurs. But those who know the terms of the deal aren't talking (at least to me), while those who don't know have offered plenty of speculation.

I've heard everything from $25 million to more than $100 million, while Seattle 2.0 offered an even bigger range of $46 million to $190 million. We're certainly curious about the valuation Google placed on Picnik. And since we've been unable to track down the final price, we've decided to ask the TechFlash community what they think the search giant should have paid. (Before casting your ballot, make sure to read more of the analysis below).

Picnik did have some impressive numbers which made it an attractive target, one of the reasons we've heard that multiple suitors were knocking at the door. (Another factor that could have impacted the price).

The profitable company -- bootstrapped by the founders with more than $1 million in financing and employing 22 people -- recorded 16.8 million unique visitors last month. That's more than double the 8.8 million uniques the company recorded for the same period last year. Meanwhile, users of Picnik spent an average of about 17 minutes on the site per visit.

One attorney told me he'd be surprised if Google paid more than $50 million, citing some of the recent acquisitions by the search giant. But that was followed up by an entrepreneur who noted that Google reportedly paid about $50 million for Aardvark, an online question and answer service that didn't have near the user base of Picnik. (It is also worth noting that Google followed up the Picnik purchase with a buyout of DocVerse, reportedly for $25 million)

A prominent venture capitalist in Seattle -- who had no direct knowledge of the Picnik deal -- guessed that Google would have paid at least $60 million given the user base. Meanwhile, a Seattle entrepreneur who runs a consumer Internet startup (who has sold a company to a large technology company) put the buyout price at $45 million.

Unfortunately, given the tough economy over the past 18 months, we don't have many comparable deals in the Seattle area.

Prior to the downturn, however, there was one consumer-Internet company which publicly disclosed its purchase price. Farecast, the online travel search engine, sold to Microsoft for $115 million in cash in April 2008. (At the time, Compete.com indicated that Farecast had about one million unique visitors).

Why do we care what Google paid? For one, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists like to keep score. But there's another underlying reason too. The deal appears to mark one of the more successful exits in the Seattle tech community in the past 18 months, which we all know has been pretty dark.

Picnik CEO Jonathan Sposato -- a known entity at Google since he sold his previous company to the search giant -- is trying to avoid the valuation debate by simply saying that the price tag was a "very happy number." No matter where it ended up, this appears to be a significant payout.