Google and Yahoo! have spiced up their search and portal operations via acquisition.

Google has purchased Picasa - a digital photo management company. Earlier this year, Google tapped Picasa's technology for its Blogger service, hoping to make it easier for users to put up their photos. Secretive as ever, Google has yet to say what else it plans to do with the Picasa software or how much it paid for the company. Google did, however, say that current Picasa users should not experience any interruption in their service.

Meanwhile, Yahoo! users may soon be able to "arse feed" directly from their email client. The portal has acquired Oddpost, a company that offers Web-based email combined with an RSS reader. Oddpost customers will be able to use their service until the integration with Yahoo! Mail is complete. Neither company announced the terms of the deal.

So there you have it. Pretty pictures, in some cases, and RSS feeds with your globs and mail. Multimedia world, here we come. ®

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