Tumblr will scan photos for presence of products and brands

Tumblr plans to scan photos uploaded to its website for the presence of certain branded products. For example, parent company Yahoo wants to ‘make clear’ what the image is of certain brands.

Ditto Labs software is used to scan photos uploaded to Tumblr for the presence of certain branded products. A deal between the two companies will be finalized this week, Mashable reports.

A spokesperson for Tumblr, which is owned by internet giant Yahoo, says that recognizing products in photos is not yet used for advertisements. Instead, Tumblr would just like to gather information about the image of certain brands on the social networking site.

By scanning photos and collecting information about where and how products are displayed by users, Tumblr probably wants to create a new source of income. It is likely that the information will be sold to interested companies. And despite Tumblr’s statements, it is likely that the data will eventually be used for ‘targeted advertising’.

Tumblr is a popular social networking site that allows users to share content such as photos and videos on their own microblogs. About 130 million photos are uploaded to the website every day. Yahoo acquired Tumblr last year for about $1.1 billion.