Facebook bought Instagram because they were a social networking site where people shared pictures. Instagram has nothing that is presumptive or proprietary. Another "Instagram" could pop up tomorrow.
There are 2 reasons they bought them. 1. FB is realizing that photos are playing a huge role in user traffic. 2. FB is using the photos on their network to build a monster database. They couldnt allow a bigger player to steal this space.
When you "tag" a photo on FB you are providing FB with very valuable metadata. Google has said that if they have 14 images of your face they can pick you out in a picture up to 99% accuracy.
Think about the database FB is building to use with ALL surveillance cameras.
Sorry to go off on a tangent but I know a little bit about this wave. Your face is a "machine readable identifier" and every camera you see will eventually have a Google like search function to identify you...yeah that's really "Big Brother.
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