Yahoo! has bought Ludicorp Research and Development - the company behind popular photo sharing site Flickr.com.

According to this company blog Flickr is going to continue with business as usual - except it won't have to draw straws to decide who gets paid. No financial terms were disclosed

Flickr lets you set up an online photo album and organise images and allow other people to leave comments about your pictures.

The site promises that current management, who are all staying put, will not be turned into "a bunch of suits". Nor will Flickr become Yahoo Photos - the two services will continue separately but Yahoo will gain some of Flickr's features.

Users won't need a Yahoo! ID to sign in but existing Yahoo! users will be able to access the service.

Yahoo! is beta-testing a new blogging tool called Yahoo! 360. The software integrates blogging software with instant messaging and search and sharing tools. A more sophisticated version of the software, possibly with picture-sharing, is expected in the next few weeks.®

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