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Yahoo! Snaps Up Startup IQ Engines, Will Improve Flickr Organization and Search

Yahoo! certainly doesn't shy away from acquiring companies it believes will help its cause. In some cases those acquisitions turn into long-term investments ala Flickr, in others the acquired company just sort of disappears.

The latest acquisition news out of the Yahoo! camp is that image-recognition startup IQ Engines is joining the Flickr team in order to help improve the organization and search features of the photo sharing site.

Sony Patent Reveals Plan to Start Tagging Photos with Vital Signs

Have you ever looked back at a photo and wondered "what was my heart rate and blood pressure when I took this photo?" Yeah, neither have we. But on the off-chance that you have, a new Sony patent application might pique your interests.

The technology specified in the application intends to enable the company's cameras and mobile devices to tag your photos with vital sign information -- allowing you to not only ask those questions, but have them answered as well.

Do Hashtags Transform a Photo Into More Than Just a Photo?

Mike Rugnetta over on PBS's Idea Channel asked an interesting question in last Wednesday's episode: Is a tagged Instagram photo more than just a photo? Or, if you will, do hashtags add something (context, meaning, the ability to connect to a community) to photographs, thereby transforming the photo as we know it into a "different entity?"