Yahoo acquires Vizify social media visualiser

Yahoo has acquired Vizify, a startup that specialises in interactive infographics and videos for social media data.

After the acquisition, Yahoo would shut down the company's services and refund the existing users.

Vizify allows people to create interactive visualisations on the basis of what they shared online, creating a type of internet biography.

An announcement on the startup site read, ''We'll no longer be allowing new signups or purchases of paid plans. As part of the transition to Yahoo, we will be sunsetting the Vizify service. As for what's next, we can't talk specifics just yet, but we're excited to bring a more visual approach to data at Yahoo.''

Users with a current paid plan would get a full refund while premium customers who had registered a domain through Vizify (like your-name.com) would be provided instructions to enable them to take ownership of the domain free of charge.

All "bioholders", free and paid will be provided a way to opt-in to ''archive'' a snapshot of the current bio that would remain live at the same URL through 4 September, 2014.

The deal amount for the company founded in 2011 had not been disclosed by either parties, though it was speculated to be a small amount for Yahoo.

According to Yahoo, it had found in Vizify a company that shared its passion for visualisation technology and the user experience.

Vizify is based in Portland, Oregon and its five-member team would join Yahoo's media product group in San Francisco.

"As for what's next, we can't talk specifics just yet, but we're excited to bring a more visual approach to data at Yahoo," the Vizify team said in a post on the company's website.

"We have a lot more up our sleeves and can't wait to get started."

Yahoo has acquired over two dozen startups as Mayer tries to revive the fortunes of the aging internet pioneer eclipsed by Silicon Valley neighbor Google.

Yahoo, last month, acquired Wander, which makes smartphone visual diary-app Days that allow people to weave images captured at various moments into "visual diaries" of any given days in their lives.

The Wander team would move to Yahoo offices in New York as the company bids to take center stage on mobile devices.