Tenor, one of the largest GIF online search engines and the company behind GIF libraries on Facebook Messenger, Samsung Messages, GBoard, Viber, Zynga, and Kik, has recently been acquired by Google.
In a blog post, Google Images Director of Engineering, Cathy Edwards, said –
“Tenor will continue to operate as a separate brand, and we’re looking forward to investing in their technology and relationships with content and API partners. So whether you’re using the Tenor keyboard or one of our other products, you can expect to see much more of this in your future”.
Over the years, the way people use and search for images has completely taken a new dimension. According to Google, the searches for GIF ranges into millions every day. With the acquisition, Google hopes to change the dynamics of how GIFs are used and that the newly-acquired Tenor will help users find just the right GIF “in Google Images as well as other products that use GIFs, like Gboard”.
Tenor which lives inside popular keyboards such as GBoard can also be found be everywhere, from Twitter to WhatsApp and it recently partnered with Samsung to bring GIF integration to the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus.
Google didn’t disclose how many tenors was purchased but do reassures us that the acquisition won’t affect Tenor’s operations as it will continue to stand as a separate brand.
