Yahoo has agreed to acquire Xoopit, a start-up that helps people share content from their inboxes with social-networking sites such as Facebook, the Web pioneer confirmed Wednesday.
With the purchase of the San Francisco-based start-up, Yahoo plans to add new photo features to Yahoo Mail, Yahoo senior vice president Bryan Lamkin said on a company blog posting: "Why is this such a big deal? Yahoo! Mail is actually home to one of the largest online photo repositories in the world. And every day, millions of you use Yahoo! Mail as your primary way to share the photos of important moments in your lives. While social networks and community sites are great for sharing photos with everyone you know, we realize it's not for everyone or every occasion. 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."
Financial terms of the deal were not revealed, but earlier reports on the possible deal pegged the deal's value at about US$20 million.
In 2008, Xoopit won the Yahoo Open Hack contest by building an app that runs on top of Yahoo Mail. The application digs through a person's inbox to reveal photos and other media lurking within, including both attachments and Web addresses that link to sites such as Flickr or Picasa Web Albums.
This article was first published as a blog post on CNET News.
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