Yahoo buys Flickr 156
FLickLover writes "Yahoo is buying Flickr for an undisclosed amount. The rumors of the deal have been doing the rounds for weeks now. On the Flickr Blog Ludicorp folks are talking about the deal and how it impacts the community. "We can finally confirm that Yahoo has made a definitive agreement to acquire Flickr and us, Ludicorp. Smack the tattlers and pop the champagne corks! Woohoo! " This is the third high profile Blog/RSS related buyout of 2005. Live Journal was bought by Six Apart, while Ask Jeeves snapped up Bloglines." Update: 03/21 12:49 GMT by H : And my favorite comment on it comes from Ben Hyde's blog. Genius.
So will they finally get rid of that stupid thing (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:So will they finally get rid of that stupid thi (Score:3, Informative)
Re:So will they finally get rid of that stupid thi (Score:2, Informative)
Re:So will they finally get rid of that stupid thi (Score:1)
Re:So will they finally get rid of that stupid thi (Score:1)
Also, the flash has some very nice uses, such as "Add note" and you can add notes to parts of a photo do make a 'diagram overlay', which is really useful for our mockups of the new SpreadFirefox.com.
Re:So will they finally get rid of that stupid thi (Score:3, Informative)
Apparently you haven't used the little "add note" button yet.
Re:So will they finally get rid of that stupid thi (Score:5, Interesting)
I hate all things Flash - including this. For those of us who have flash turned off / disabled, it's extremely inconvenient. There's no reason that an online image viewer should need to use it. Period.
First of all, you went to the trouble of finding out that the image url is passed to the flash application, but did not realize that they provide that URL in a link next to the picture? Did you also notice that they provide the URL to alternate sizes of the picture as well?
Secondly, Flash is NOT REQUIRED to use Flickr. Turn Flash off, and it still works.
So tell me again about how inconvenient Flickr is to those who are too good for Flash.
Re:So will they finally get rid of that stupid thi (Score:2)
Example [flickr.com]:
(75 x 75) Square
(100 x 67) Thumbnail
(240 x 160) Small
(500 x 333) Medium
(1024 x 683) Large
(3072 x 2048) Original
Re:So will they finally get rid of that stupid thi (Score:1)
If not you can still see the Flashified photos but you cannot view any other sizes and easily download photos.
There are obviously other reasons for using Flash here - the preloader is nice and clean, and obviously more efficient than using some horrible DHTML solution.
Re:So will they finally get rid of that stupid thi (Score:2)
They've renamed it (Score:5, Funny)
Re:They've renamed it (Score:1)
Next: Google buys FotoFlix (Score:2)
Yarrrrrrrr! (Score:1, Funny)
Yahoos' Dark Helmut (Score:5, Funny)
My Flickr account password (Score:3, Funny)
1...2...3...4...5
Brilliant! Just like my luggage combo.
Re:My Flickr account password (Score:1)
What luggage is that? (Score:2)
I have a couple of Samsonite suitcases, they only have three-digit locks. Where did you get luggage with five-digit lcks?
I wish I could make that much moola.... (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the difference between them and I is partly that there was more than one competent computer scientist and partly that they understood the users so well because they were users. I can't imagine someone putting together such an excellent photo suite that wasn't into photography.
The one thing that I have in common with them is that I can think of clever ideas for implementation.
So basically, their achievement was a combination of having an excellent development team, being users (domain knowledge), and being able to utilize the latest and greatest technology to create a truly innovative product.
Anyway, I am a little jealous, but if the creators of Flickr are reading this I would like to say "Congrats."
Re:I wish I could make that much moola.... (Score:2)
Re:I wish I could make that much moola.... (Score:2)
Re:I wish I could make that much moola.... (Score:2)
Re:I wish I could make that much moola.... (Score:2)
The Ludicorp people themselves speak of their money troubles (on their Typepad, no less, weblog) "It means that we'll no longer have to draw straws to see who gets paid."
So, my take is that while they do have a vibrant, growing, etc. community of photosharing/social networking, they do not have a sustainable business model.
A lot of energy and buzz, no profits.
I.e. Yahoo might not have paid through the nose for Flickr. And now it'll b
Re:I wish I could make that much moola.... (Score:2, Informative)
Perhaps this is a "big buyout", but I honestly don't think so.
The Ludicorp people themselves speak of their money troubles (on their Typepad, no less, weblog) "It means that we'll no longer have to draw straws to see who gets paid."
So, my take is that while they do have a vibrant, growing, etc. community of photosharing/social networking, they do not have a sustainable business model.
They may not have a sustainable business model because they never needed one. This isn't Stewart's first buyout:
Re:I wish I could make that much moola.... (Score:1)
Well, if they're doing something neat (which I think flickr is) and are having fun doing it, more power to 'em.
A little history (Score:2)
Re:I wish I could make that much moola.... (Score:2)
A lot of companies tried to make money in the same area, but few had the same concepts: build something for the user experience, make it easy for users to share, allow users to create their own taxonomies, open wide your API... this isn't about luck or coding smarts- although they certainly were necessary. I would describe it as a different philosophy or ethic.
Seems there's money for us enterprising geeks, if we quit creating
Re:I wish I could make that much moola.... (Score:2)
I don't take many photos but I finally signed up for a Flickr account simply because I think their app is really, really cool. A couple random notes from my notes file:
Re:I wish I could make that much moola.... (Score:2)
Blogosphere support
Yes, I know uttering the word "blogosphere" is going to make many people deeply, deeply irritated (and perhaps with good reason), but I don't think Flickr (and Ludicorp) would be anywhere as successful without the frequent linking and press from popular blogs like these:
It's kind of like Googl
Re:I wish I could make that much moola.... (Score:2)
Re:I wish I could make that much moola.... (Score:2)
Most importantly, they were more interested in creating something that they wanted to create than they were in making money off of it:
"The game and styles of playing the game are what matter because they produce identities people care about. Likewise, a business develops an identity by p
Documentary Startup.com (Score:2)
I recommend it to anybody who's interested in seeing from the inside what the glory days of the dot com bubble looked like. Starting from nothing with a cool idea, getting millions from venture capitalists, and then the fall from grace.
Great stuff.
In another vein, I recommend the other [imdb.com] documentary by the same girl.
Makes Sense (Score:5, Insightful)
I've been curious about Google's attempts to do email (introduce a new paradigm and confuse users), and photo management (buy a desktop product - wtf does Picass have to do with web?), but I can see some sense of coherence with Yahoo's (both web-based with slick/easy UIs).
Interesting times.
Re:Makes Sense (Score:1)
The rest of Hello seems bit pointless - picture chatting? Come on.. But the nice desktop picture management combined with easy blogging of selected pictures is nice.
Web interface ISN'T everything and Picasa is closest thing to iPhoto on wintel PC.. and if you're some Linux nut who thinks that everyone wants to use KDE/Gnome progra
Re:Makes Sense (Score:3, Informative)
Care to explain how gmail confuses users? Google's stated motto is to organize the world's information. For me, Picassa helps organize my photos and it does a kickass job of it. If you still need a connection between Picassa and the web, there's their 'Hello' service that lets you blog your pictures directly.
Re:Makes Sense (Score:2)
Sure, I think Google's tools are cool, but I think Yahoo has the better ingredients for something totally integrated (if that's what people want...)
Think of an outlook-style web interface (oddpost), with folders for search (Y!), ima
Flickr is very cool and I hope it stays that way. (Score:5, Interesting)
If you read the posts that founders Stewart and Caterina have been making in the Flickr Blog [flickr.com], and elsewhere [flickr.com], it's clear that they truly believe that this acquisition is for the best, and I don't doubt that both the Ludicorp folks and the Yahoo folks have the best of intentions.
Just as small children sometimes accidentally mistreat beloved pets, large groups of people with the best of intentions sometimes break things. Flickr currently has the feel of a 'mom & pop shop' and it is hard to believe that this state of affairs will continue with the influx of more money & extra management. But let's hope so!
The Ubiquitous Response (Score:1)
Re:The Ubiquitous Response (Score:2)
It has interested me that over at Blogger.com (a Google property) they haven't immediately come out with their own photo-blogging spin-off. Google mean time acquired another photo company (who's name I forget) that only works for Windows (Hence I don't use it) and they have been recommending that non-Windows users use Flickr instead (which I have).
Now I wonder what Googles response will be? Continue recommending a Yahoo product?
Seems to me there is significant r
Google's own Flickr (Score:2)
Re:The Ubiquitous Response (Score:2)
I'm confused (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:I'm confused (Score:3, Funny)
Flickr isn't used almost exclusively to host members' amateur porn.
zerg (Score:2, Funny)
Re:zerg (Score:1)
Indeed... I'd shout "Cha-CHING!"
what's a flickr program for your own server? (Score:1)
Re:what's a flickr program for your own server? (Score:3, Informative)
See Forums->G2->Development->Sticky Thread for Demo Sites
G2 is beta, quite stable since alpha.
Re:what's a flickr program for your own server? (Score:2, Informative)
Will Yahoo eat this up? (Score:5, Insightful)
The Flickr guys say that they'll remain separate. I fail to see how much say Ludicorp have left seeing as this appears to be a total buyout.
Yahoo! will do what they have always done, and subsume the functionality into their own, and slap it's own design on to boot. Unfortunately, unlike the Borg, Yahoo! does not look cool. The design of Yahoo! is as poor (both in ugliness and usability) today as it has always been. One of Flickr's many strengths (apart from the obvious technological ones) is that the designers always seemed to recognise the importance of *white space*. Flickr makes my photos look good. It looks professional, but it doesn't take the focus away from the photo. If Yahoo! forces the its unique brand of boring, cluttered onto the site, the usability and visual appeal is going to go down the drain. And isn't visual appeal part of why we take photos?
Geocities was no looker [archive.org] that's for sure, but at least it looked like it had some creativity left in its soul.
Yahoo! stopped that cadaver kicking [archive.org].
Re:Will Yahoo eat this up? (Score:1, Interesting)
Their web applications (mail, calender, address book) are superbly designed - and their content pages (search.yahoo.com, maps.yahoo.com, news.yahoo.com, etc) are very clearly laid out and easy to read. Compare and contrast the equivalent pages to MSN or Google and you'll see the difference. I also like that they use consistently simple color schemes - generally black text on
Re:Will Yahoo eat this up? (Score:2)
MSN is a nightmare, no doubt about that one. I don't understand you comment about Google, I find it excellent.
Re:Will Yahoo eat this up? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, but I think in this case Yahoo's presentation is cleaner and more usable than the old geocities site. I know people 'round here like to jizz all over Google, but the fact is that Yahoo has improved the clutter greatly. Google is still my primary search engine, but I visited yahoo the other day and was fairly impressed. Compare their current page with this [archive.org] or this. [archive.org] Their yellow pages/maps served me better than google's offerings for my most recent visit *gasp*.
Say what you want about Yahoo, but I work in a university computer lab and I see people spend oodles of time over at launch (remember when they were a cd mag?) and YahooGames. They've got more eyeballs and spend more on R&D and more profitable than Google. See? [wired.com]
Having said that, it's hard to see how they could possibly integrate Flickr properly but don't discount them offhand because they are not "teh g00gle"
SE's (Score:1)
I predict FeedBurner [feedburner.com] will be one of the next to go
Now I know how to get acquired by Yahoo! (Score:1)
I will promptly rename my company:
Insanocorp
or
HysterInc!
Tragic? (Score:4, Insightful)
Flickr was cool because it wasn't too commercial and wasn't in your face with signing up for shit. I can only picture what will happen under yahoo ownership
(fade into fantasy sequence 1 year from now)
You go onto Flickr, there are links everywhere for signing up for yahoo junk. I try to upload a photo, but instead I am taken to a page where I am solicited to sign up for something called "Yahoo groups". I try to do a search for a certain tag, but instead of pretty pictures, I get half a page of junk ads and then maybe some layout of pictures that's unusable for some reason. I could go on and on.
I just hope my beloved del.icio.us never sells out.
Re:Tragic? (Score:1)
I am not fretting what sort of Yahooisms will invade Flickr. How does this affect my account? Will I now have to go to "Flickr.Yahoo.com" to see my pictures? Will I have to have a Yahoo account?
Etc. Etc.
Independence (like ignorance) is bliss.
Re:Tragic? (Score:2)
blogs suddenly becoming big business... (Score:1)
This makes me pause and ponder the imact blogs in general have had in recent years. Suddenly, many previously supressed voices are jumping out into the world via the web and companies like Flickr, and large corperations such as Yahoo are jumping for the opertunity too buy them up. I remember not so long ago blogger/blogspot were bought out by Google. Interesting perspectives from places you wouldn't usually see them are now sud
Re:blogs suddenly becoming big business... (Score:1)
Will they simply burn out, or will the companies that seem to be buying them attempt to continue to promote them, etc.
Re:blogs suddenly becoming big business... (Score:1)
Smack my _____ up. (Score:2)
Not Woohoo.. Yahoo. You're so not making a good first impression with the new bosses.
I won't even ask what a tattler is.
Re:Smack my _____ up. (Score:2)
Pricetag? (Score:2)
Any rumours on the grapevine for what the buyout price was? And what the terms of the deal were?
Re:Pricetag? (Score:1)
price: 20 bucks
terms: yahoo pwnz flickr
Pass it on.
Re:Pricetag? (Score:2)
Keeping up with, then shooting, the joneses... (Score:5, Interesting)
New bubble sighted; investors "Dumbstruck" (Score:2, Insightful)
Corrected headline: "Yahoo waves goodbye to pile of cash"
TWW
Re:New bubble sighted; investors "Dumbstruck" (Score:2, Insightful)
Although I do agree that blogs are just a fad.
Re:New bubble sighted; investors "Dumbstruck" (Score:2)
In 10 days.
some fad, that is.
Re:New bubble sighted; investors "Dumbstruck" (Score:2)
try getting something printed in a newspaper, without being a journalist who works there.
Re:New bubble sighted; investors "Dumbstruck" (Score:2, Insightful)
"Blogs" are being adopted at lots of places because they mean *communication*. The proverbial angst-ridden teen talking about his/her lunch and how life sucks is communication as much as team members inside a company making decisions is communication. "Blog" is just a buzzword for communication, and it's good in that it has gotten people to adopt it; the form itself may or may not be a fad depending on if some greater way of communica
Re:New bubble sighted; investors "Dumbstruck" (Score:2)
That's exactly the attitude that's led to the destruction of Google as a quality search engine. All comments are not equal and while both of these are communication, as you say, one of them is "noise" and the other is "signal".
TWW
Re:New bubble sighted; investors "Dumbstruck" (Score:2)
Yep, heard that one a thousand times in the 90's. Didn't work then.
TWW
Seems pointless (Score:1)
Re:Seems pointless (Score:2)
Can Yahoo now patent Flickr's functions? If so, they may not have bought Flickr. They may have bought prior art (had they tried to patent Flickr's functions people could shout "prior art". It's likely there is prior art anyway, but Yahoo probably figured the crazy US legal system wouldn't care).
Beta (Score:1)
Undisclosed amount? (Score:1)
Re:Undisclosed amount? (Score:2)
del.icio.us is next. (Score:1)
Here's my prediction (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Here's my prediction (Score:1)
Yahoo sucks (Score:2)
In a related story.... (Score:1)
Change the name please? (Score:2)
Re:Change the name please? (Score:2)
Boogers on Flickr. [flickr.com]
Crap (Score:3, Insightful)
I for one do not welcome Flickr's Yahoo overlords. I was actually flirting with the idea of subscribing to Flickr after trying it over the last few weeks. Now I fully expect to see a dramatic decrease in the site's responsiveness and a dramatic increase in obnoxious ads.
I for one welcome our new search engine overlords! (Score:1, Insightful)
all i have to say... (Score:1)
Don't worry, soon Yahoo will have it choked up with ads, code that only runs in IEWin, and any notion of community, folksonomies, or some other cultural shift by design is GONE forever.
Hooray to SixApart for adjusting their license model -- they are keeping the spirit alive, allowing their creation to continue to cause more of a cultural shift, by design, than many others. OK, I know you like WordPress... and it's fine too but it's still totally
Yahoo digest Geocities easily... (Score:3, Interesting)
What Yahoo says is not what Yahoo does. Take the case of Geocities. What was once a thriving sprawl similar to the one reaching from Boston to Atlanta with spots of brilliance scattered everywhere is now a homogenized mangle of hit or miss. To quote Caterina Fake at the Flickr blog...
What is going to happen to Flickr?
Flickr will be continuing on the path it's on -- to Flickr 1.0 and beyond. We'll be working with a bunch of people that Totally Get Flickr and want to preserve the community and the flavor of what is here. We're going to grow and change, but we're in it for the long haul, with the same management and same team.
I would mod this as Funny if this were a post at /.! I met the guys that were starting Geocities back in the old days at a CA conference here in New Orleans and found their new idea of an online community exciting (I suggested side streets or allys to give them more space in the developed areas.) I learned html on Geocities and still have a couple of pages there (which I cannot get into). But their company has gone into the blender that is Yahoo.
You're not going to become a bunch of suits?
No, no, no! The precious DNA we've got -- that of the Ludicrew -- is on side and revving up for building Flickr. Having the team building out the team's vision for Flickr has been stressed as our number one priority, and keeping us around -- in spite of our wiseassery, tomfoolery and tendency to hoot spontaneously -- is crucial for preserving the Flickrness that is Flickr. They're not going to replace any of us with suits, nor induce us to wear them. Lapel? I don't know what you mean.
The target stores circular in todays paper had some nice ties with ...s and ooos on them and at a good price. Better stock up. You may not be replaced, but you may very well become suits. "Just for this one important meeting" is how it usually starts...
Are you going to become Yahoo Photos?
No. Yahoo Photos will get a lot of Flickr features, and there are alot of other areas around Yahoo that will also be Flickrized where Flickrization would be good. Yahoo Photos and Flickr have different kinds of users with different needs, and will remain separate for the foreseeable future. Flickr would also suffer from a sudden deluge of LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! omg! so we're going to grow it carefully.
It took about a year for Yahoo to totally digest Geocities. It's just a word now that is internet history.
Do I have to have a Yahoo ID to use Flickr?
No. In the future, you'll be able to log into Flickr using your Yahoo account, but you can continue logging on as before.
I'll bet it'll be less than a year on the ID thing. Yahoo is looking to sell you to the advertisers and the ID is the hook, look at what you get. It's a lot. I use my yahoo personal page for a great news feed, totally customizable and with lots of features and look forward to a Flickr module in there aswell.
Waaaaaaaah!! I don't want Flickr to change!
Don't forget to breathe. It's not the end, it's the beginning! As the wise woman who taught us The One True Way of Flickr Massage says, the only thing permanent is change. But we're going to stay true to our vision and to the people who made us what we are -- that's you, the Flickr pioneers. Thanks for making the first year of Flickr so wonderful.
I'm sorry Caterina, but like the old Jefferson Airplane song goes," When the truth within you turns out to be lies, And all the joy within you dies..."
Of course, we will be happy to answer questions, accept backslapping, and do deep breathing exercises with the Flickr community at Flickr Central.
Don't count on it. I've tried to get access to my Geocities pages for over a year now and have yet to find an email address or 800 number at Yahoo to talk to someone about getting access there again, but... Sure there are plenty of forms, with standard replies and forums where there i
Great (Score:3, Insightful)
You can also now probably look foward to having to click "skip this ad" when trying to view photos I'm sure.
The lamest thing that could happen to a cool tech company is to be swallowed up by some big public company. I'm actually not anti-yahoo by any means, I just don't possibly see how this will be good for flickr. And I'm just sure that ipod toting pseudo hipster crowd is going to love paying money to yahoo now.
And finally worst of all is that I'm sure that the previous owners will convince themselves that somehow they will remain independant and that yahoo will just let them run things "like always". Yea right. Anyone want to buy a bridge?
Oh yea (Score:3, Insightful)
I will say congrats to the flickr guys. It's
Re:Great (Score:2)
Oh no! (Score:1)
Too bad. (Score:2, Interesting)
Does this mean (Score:3, Interesting)
Tragedy in the Making (Score:5, Insightful)
This is NOT GOOD NEWS.
Yahoo might have some remnant of niftyism about them for having survived this long, but let's face it. Their site(s)
a) suck
b) look like shit
c) use annoying navigation & layout
d) are too Borg-like to attract people who were attracted by Flickr.
I just finshed uploading lots of pics to Flickr, and am now considering removing all of them and cancelling my PAID FOR membership, given this news of Yahoo's buyout.
I joined Flickr because they're NOT Yahoo/MSN/Google/etc. I love the community feel of Flickr, its layout, design, vibe...and I GUARANTEE that Yahoo won't leave it untouched. And even if it did leave the design the same, the changes to the TOS are bound to be evil by definition (as Flickr's were not).
Flickr vs. Pbase (Score:2)
Re:Flickr? (Score:1, Troll)
Flickr allows you to... (Score:2)
Re:excellent! (Score:5, Funny)