Will Flickr Upgrade by Yahoo Help Calm Tumblr Concerns?
May 21, 2013
While Yahoo’s planned $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr drew all the headlines yesterday, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer also unveiled a new Flickr experience for desktop and Android users. During Monday’s press event in New York City, Mayer announced that in addition to a redesign, an impressive terabyte of storage is coming to Flickr users. Yahoo purchased the photo-sharing site in 2005; today it touts more than 8 billion photographs.
“The new Flickr comes with a cover photo, a new look for albums — or called a user set — is streamlined in rows,” reports Mashable. “It also dropped its pro subscription accounts.”
“Flickr was once awesome, and it languished… now we want it to be awesome again,” said Mayer.
According to the Flickr home page, one terabyte of storage is enough for 537,731 photos at 6.5 megapixels each (or 349,525 photos at 10 megapixels). The Flickr blog differentiates its service from competitors such as Instagram: “…we believe you should share all your images in full resolution, so life’s moments can be relived in their original quality. No limited pixels, no cramped formats, no memories that fall flat. We’re giving your photos room to breathe, and you the space to upload a dizzying number of photos and videos, for free.”
Flickr now supports up to 3 minutes per video at 1080p. “And yes, you can upload as many as you have space for,” notes the blog.
“As soon as you come to Flickr, you know it’s not about small pictures and more… and you can easily share not only with those you connect to on Flickr, but also on Instagram, Facebook and of course, to Tumblr,” explained a company spokesperson.
Yahoo also announced that the company has a new facility for its 500 New York employees, located at 229 West 43rd Street — the former New York Times building. Tumblr employees are expected to work from Yahoo’s offices downtown.
Early reactions on social media sites to the Tumblr acquisition “were mixed, but many of Tumblr users said they feel betrayed by the acquisition and believe the move could be the end for the blogging platform,” reports Mashable. “Some of the worry stems from Yahoo’s previous acquisition of Flickr, which ultimately changed the photo-sharing site.”
In a related article, Mashable breaks down exactly what the changes mean for Flickr Pro users.
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