Google buys GIF platform Tenor

Google is acquiring the GIF platform Tenor, the company announced today. Tenor will continue to operate as a separate brand within Google which plans to integrate GIFs into Google Images and Gboard, the company's virtual keyboard.

"Most people now use Google Images to find more information about a topic, and to help them communicate and express themselves — case in point, we see millions of searches for GIFs every day," wrote Cathy Edwards, Google Images director of engineering, in the post. "We've continued to evolve Google Images to meet both of these needs, and today we're bringing GIFs more closely into the fold."

Tenor has increasingly positioned itself as a search company, using that as a metric for engagement and success as users tap into a massive database of GIFs. The company said it has more than 12 billion searches every month.

Tenor is available on Facebook and other platforms and reaches more than 300 million users.