Yahoo! swoops for Xoopit email photo finding firm

"In short, Xoopit will bring phenomenal photo organization, improved photo sharing, and the serendipity of discovering forgotten photos to Yahoo! Mail," Yahoo! Applications senior vice president Bryan Lamkin said in an online post.

Xoopit got Yahoo!'s attention last year when it won a "Hack Day" event at the Internet pioneer's campus in Sunnyvale, California, presenting software for organizing pictures tucked away in Yahoo! Mail inboxes.

Xoopit-driven "My Photos" has become the third most popular application at Yahoo! Mail since it was added at the end of last year, according to Lamkin.

"Over the last few months, we have left every conversation with the Yahoo! team thinking that together we can wow the world," Xoopit founders Bijan Mirashi and Jonathan Katzman wrote in a message at their website.

"We now get to unleash our ideas on the future of email to a huge global user base. Everyone here is excited and ready to bring photo mojo to more inboxes around the world!"

Yahoo! Mail is reported to be the largest Web-based email service with more than 280 million users.

"Yahoo! Mail is actually home to one of the largest online photo repositories in the world," Lamkin said.

"For many, email is still best for sharing photos among a more select group of friends or family. And now we?re making it all that much easier for you."

Users of "My Photos" in Yahoo! Mail will see the application evolve, while those using Xoopit in Google's free online Gmail service will see the feature "remain active for the time being," according to Xoopit's founders.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed by the firms.

(c) 2009 AFP