Yahoo on Monday confirmed that it has bought image search specialty startup IQ Engines to add the company's technology to its Flickr photo service.
"IQ Engines is joining the Flickr team at
Yahoo," the startup said in a message at its website. "As longtime
Flickr fans and fellow photography enthusiasts, we look forward to working on
improving photo organization and search for the community."
IQ Engines is known for software that analyzes, sorts,
and categorizes images using techniques including facial recognition.
In May, Yahoo unveiled a dusted-off design of its
Flickr photo platform with chief executive Marissa Mayer saying her goal was to
make the online service "awesome again."
Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo has been on a buying
spree since Mayer became chief last year with a mission to revive the withering
Internet pioneer.
The list of more than 20 acquisitions includes Qwiki, a
New York operation behind an application that converts video and pictures on
iPhones into sharable movie clips complete with music soundtracks.
Yahoo in June completed a billion-dollar deal taking
over the popular blogging platform Tumblr, a move aimed at bringing more
youthful users into the company's orbit.
Mayer's plan for reviving Yahoo's fortunes includes
making priorities of mobile devices, video, personalized digital content, and
elevating the company's popularity outside the United States.
Yahoo shares were boosted last week by a survey showed
the struggling Internet giant topped a survey for US Web visitors for the first
time since 2011.
In late afternoon trading Monday, Yahoo was trading
down fractionally at $27.97.
The comScore survey showed Yahoo edged past Google with
195.6 million unique US Web visitors. It was the first time Yahoo was on top
since May 2011. The figures exclude Yahoo's newly acquired Tumblr blog sites.
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