Yahoo has acquired an image recognition startup, LookFlow,has bigger plans for its popular photo-sharing service, Flickr, as the company has acquired an image recognition startup, LookFlow, in order to enhance the Flickr experience.
Yahoo's shopping spree continues with the acquisition of LookFlow, it seems this will help ramp up its renowned photo-sharing service, Flickr. LookFlow is a California-based image recognition startup.
Besides several modifications to its other services and apps, Yahoo has been working on its Flickr service for quite some time. Most recently, Yahoo acquired IQ Engines, an image-recognition startup, to improve photo organization and search functionality on Flickr. The latest acquisition fits quite well in Yahoo's closet as both the startups will work efficiently to improve Flickr's image recognition technology, with which the engineering team has been having some issues for a while now.
The financial details of the deal remained undisclosed but LookFlow has confirmed the acquisition with a message posted on its homepage. In the message, the startup has revealed how both the companies share a similar goal. The company also said that it will help Yahoo in building a new "deep leaning group."
Since Marissa Mayer stepped up as the CEO in July last year, the company has undergone several changes including a refreshed homepage, redesigned logo, overhauled Mail interface and several acquisitions. All these efforts are part of Mayer's plans to take the company to greater heights.
Flickr currently serves more than 90 million users, according to the company. The service offers users 1TB of storage, which can easily accommodate over 530,000 high-resolution images. Since photos hold a sacred place in Flickr, the company's interest in acquiring image recognition start ups makes sense. It would be fascinating to see how the company will integrate the technologies and stand out in the competitive photo-sharing business.
