Flickr And The Video Launch

In the good old days, there were albums, where pictures needed to be printed and stuck in. We progressed to posting pictures on the web, which also had to be done in groups into an online album. Flickr changed all that with the concept of digital photography, and alleviated the need for processing of rolls of film or grouping of pictures to go into an album.

Flickr, which was founded in 2002 by Ludicorp, is a digital image and video hosting website, providing a suite of web services with an online community platform. It is one of the most innovative photo sharing sites available currently and few other sites have had this impact on digital photo sharing as Flickr did.

Flickr until now provided users the facility of sharing personal photographs online, which can also be tagged and browsed. It has come to be a very popular website, also used by bloggers as a photo repository.

It has been a great hit with Mac users and Linux users, who have always been given a raw deal by other photo sharing sites that provide access to only Windows and Internet Explorer users.

Yahoo acquired Flickr in 2005 and integrated Flickr into the search results, when users search for images.

The latest news about Flickr is that they are venturing into online video and Yahoo will be shutting down Yahoo pictures in favor of Flickr. Current Yahoo photo users will be given the option to either shift all their pictures to Flickr, with just a click of a button or export them to other services such as Snapfish, Kodak Gallery, Photobucket or Shutterfly as well as several other options.

Yahoo will begin showing online homemade videos on Flickr. Users will be allowed to upload videos of about 90 seconds to go with the images. Although, the length of the video seems less, it is great to be able to upload all those special moments of life in the form of personal videos taken by the users. This facility will be available only to Pro members and not to free members.

The size of the photos is being doubled too, up to 20MB per picture for Pro members and 10MB per picture for free members.

This move is felt to be another of Yahoo’s tactics to catch up with Google. But with Google’s domination with YouTube, it is felt that it may be too late for Flickr to lure users away from Google. The general consensus is that YouTube has reached such great heights that it may be difficult for Yahoo to achieve what they are looking for.

Flickr, which may launch its video on Tuesday, is confident that their service will be better than most other websites featuring video, as it provides users the convenience of keeping their pictures and videos, all at one place.

“What we are doing is going to meet a huge unmet need in the market. Most people aren’t showing their personal videos at all right now,” said Kakul Srivastava, General Manager of Flickr.

Flickr has been very popular even before the launch of its video, with thousands of users trusting it with their personal images. The video launch just may be a good move in encouraging these current users to shift their videos to Flickr, even if it takes time for new users to take interest.

Written by
Hasan
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2 comments
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