Image and video sharing website Twitpic on Saturday announced it has inked a deal with Twitter that will see the failed image-sharing website handing over its domain and photo archive to Twitter.
Announcing the deal, Twitpic founder Noah Everett in a blog post said that he was happy to announce that his company “reached an agreement with Twitter to give them the Twitpic domain and photo archive, thus keeping the photos and links alive for the time being.” The announcement was made just hours before the service was scheduled to shut down on Saturday.
As part of the deal, the social blogging giant will keep Twitpic links and photos alive on the website, but unfortunately users won’t be able to add any new photos or data. However, users will still be able to login to their profiles, delete content or Twitpic accounts, or export and download their content. The Twitpic apps for iOS and Android have been pulled down from their app stores and will no longer be supported.
The Twitpic service, which allowed users to share their images on Twitter, lost its relevance as Twitter made uploading photos much easier. The image sharing website had announced its shut down plans in September following a legal dispute with Twitter in which the social network had threatened to cut off Twitpic’s access to its API if the 6-year-old startup did not abandon its trademark.
“Unfortunately we do not have the resources to fend off a large company like Twitter to maintain our mark which we believe whole heartedly is rightfully ours. Therefore, we have decided to shut down Twitpic,” Everett wrote in a previous blog post.
Twitter is yet to comment on the deal.
