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Flickr Adds Video Capabilities to Service

Posted by Zonk on from the we-can-see-you-dancin dept.

EMNDev writes "Flickr has announced they're adding video playback capabilities to the popular photo service. Clips are limited to 90 seconds and 150mb, what they're calling 'long photos' as they refer to them. 'Unlike YouTube, where videos from professional media and amateurs alike are uploaded for the world to view, Flickr members can limit who the videos are shared with, through privacy settings. Sharing digital photographs online is now commonplace, with Flickr users having uploaded 2bn worldwide. However, video sharing is less lucrative, with 55% of internet users just playing their video clips on their cameras or on their PCs - without sharing the footage over the internet.'"

3 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. At least until MS buys yahoo ... by gstoddart · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I fully expect all of the utility of my Flickr Pro membership to be completely destroyed if and when Microsoft buys Yahoo.

    They'll invariably migrate it to Active X or Silverlight or somesuch Microsoft technology, make it twice as slow and cost twice as much, and make it tied to a passport login -- it would likely only play Windows Media files. The usual Microsoft strategy when they acquire a service.

    I'm really hoping Flickr wouldn't get mangled in that acquisition. I really like it, and I've already got a lot of photos uploaded and the like.

    Sadly, I don't expect to be pleasantly surprised should it happen. :(

    Cheers

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:At least until MS buys yahoo ... by hkgroove · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Dammit! I had to sign up for Yahoo when Yahoo took over flickr. Now are we going to have to get an msn or live account? I'm willing to bet that flickr is a big big reason that MS wants yahoo. There was a huge revolt amongst the users that had been with flickr since their early days (myself included) with many of us putting "old skool" tags on our photos and photo avatar.

    2. Re:At least until MS buys yahoo ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I'm a Pro account holder with several thousands of photos uploaded as well, and I concur - M$ buying Yahoo would be bad news for Flickr, most likely.

      Not that Yahoo buying Flickr was good news: the whole "you need a Yahoo account to sign in now" spiel really sucked, although at least you can log out of Yahoo independently again (so myself, I just created a new Yahoo account separate from my old one for the sole purpose of signing into Flickr with it).

      But Yahoo at least realised that Flickr works because it works the way it works, and they didn't make any major changes to the site as such. I doubt M$ would be able or willing to do the same, or that they'd even understand why people actually use Flickr.