Yahoo's spending spree seemingly knows no bounds as Marissa Mayer and company recently purchased image recognition specialist IQ Engines. The acquisition will be used to improve photo organization and search for the Flickr community according to a statement from the startup. The company has since shut down all sign-ups and will shutter their APIs within the next 30 days.

The startup splashed onto the scene in 2010 with a $1 million round of funding for an API that would allow customers like online retailers and app developers to offer what's described as a visual search engine capable of automatically categorizing images.

The company created a few other APIs over the following years as well. The first known as SmartCamera was aimed at retailers that wished to have their customers scan products and brand logos using the camera on their smartphone. Another API called SmartAlbum bolstered online facial recognition and photo analysis which is likely what the Internet pioneer was after with the purchase.

Yahoo's redesign of Flickr earlier this year showcased the company's commitment to the online storage community and came right after their $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr. In addition to a whole new look and feel that brought the site into the modern era, users were also given a boost in storage up to 1TB. That's enough space to store more than half a million photos which will likely leave even the most dedicated photo buffs with plenty of room to spare.