Flickr’s recent transition to a “spectacular” new design and account structure has been anything but “spectacular” thus far. While some photographers have come out in support of the new design, reaction from the photographic community seems to be more negative than positive.
The new design was accused of being tailored towards the Facebook/Instagram/Twitter crowd and not photographers, Marissa Mayer made the statement that because of the prevalence of cameras there’s not such thing as a professional photographer anymore, and it looked like certain Flickr Pro users would be “screwed” out of their Pro accounts … We’re guessing it’s been a rough few days at the Yahoo! offices. Read more…
…there’s no such thing as Flickr Pro, because today, with cameras as pervasive as they are, there is no such thing really as professional photographers, when there’s everything is professional photographers. Certainly there is varying levels of skills, but we didn’t want to have a Flickr Pro anymore, we wanted everyone to have professional quality photos, space, and sharing.” – Marissa Mayer, Yahoo Event, May 2013
Woah, there, Yahoo cowgirl…let’s hold on just a second!
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Yahoo! just released a new weather app that takes advantage of beautiful photos provided by the company’s Flickr community to pair in depth weather information with gorgeous photos of your city experiencing similar weather. The idea is that users don’t just want to know the weather (numerically speaking), they want to see it. Read more…
We’re used to Google frequently improving things on its end — most recently adding pan and zoom to Google+ — but a constantly improving Yahoo! is a fairly new thing.
After numerous improvements to Flickr and a new Flickr app, Yahoo! has turned its photographic eye on Yahoo! Image Search. From here on out, you’ll be able to search all of Flickr’s creative commons images straight from Yahoo! Read more…
When it comes to the Marissa Mayer/Yahoo!/Flickr love triangle, a little timeline of events is always helpful. So first we had Marissa Mayer, Google’s 20th employee, take over as CEO of Yahoo! after several other people over the course of 12 months just couldn’t cut it. It was around that time that the #dearmarissamayer movement began, with the message “Please Make Flickr Awesome Again” at the top of its list.
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Yahoo made some management moves a couple of weeks ago, with VP Adam Cahan becoming head of the company’s mobile endeavors and it’s photo-sharing service, Flickr. Cahan was previously the founder and CEO of IntoNow, a 12-week-old company that Yahoo acquired last year for $20 to $30 million.
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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer held her first earnings call yesterday, and it appears that stockholders were pleased with the company’s latest quarter figures: the stock price has been soaring since then. Among the areas that Yahoo sees promise in are Flickr and mobile, as well as a combination of the two.
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Good news, Flickr fans: new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is paying attention to your service, and is planning to make it a big part of her plans to turn the company around. Mayer will be holding her first “all hands” meeting tomorrow, during which she will reveal her plans on how to fix the beleaguered web pioneer. Among these plans are an emphasis on user experience over advertising revenue and special attention given to Flickr. Kara Swisher of AllThingsD writes,
It’s all based around learning technology that Yahoo has been working on called CORE, or Content Optimization and Relevance Engine. There will be lots of linking out and an attempt to make Yahoo more of a platform for others to develop on top of.
It’s a little Facebook-like, said several sources, but more focused on content and other products that differentiate Yahoo. Mayer has decided to back 10 key arenas, such as its powerful Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Sports sites, as well as its Flickr photo offering.
[...] In addition, Mayer has already ordered the removal of some ads from both Yahoo’s email service and also its home page, cutting them back to improve the consumer experience. That’s a dicey move since Yahoo makes a big chunk of change from those ads, especially on the home page.
It seems like Mayer is paying heed to the Internet’s polite request for her to “please make Flickr awesome again.”
(via Engadget)
Zuckerberg’s crazy $1 billion purchase of Instagram 6 months ago is now looking like a steal. BusinessInsider writes that the photo sharing app, which ended up costing just $735 million when the deal finally closed, has seen meteoric growth since the purchase agreement was made:
Mark Zuckerberg did a lot of things wrong during the first half of 2012, leading up to and through Facebook’s few months as a public company. One thing he did well was buy Instagram for $1 billion. It turns out that was a bargain.
Back then, the photo-sharing app for Android phones and iPhones had 860,000 daily active users. Today it has 11 million. That is 1179% growth in six months.
They also point out that photo sharing site Pinterest, which has far less users, has in recent months turned down acquisition offers of over $2 billion. Instagram has 30.3 million monthly users, and just passed the 100 million registered users mark. These astronomical prices being thrown around make Yahoo’s $35 million — the rumored figure — purchase of Flickr look like an absolute steal. Too bad they haven’t been able to do much with the service so far.
Zuckerberg’s Huge Win: Instagram Proves To Be A Bargain At $1 Billion [Business Insider]
Remember that new Flickr account we reported on yesterday that appeared to be owned by Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer? Turns out it actually wasn’t her, and was quickly taken down after becoming a big story in the blogosphere.
TechCrunch reports that Mayer actually does have a Flickr account — one that’s set to private.
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