Reconfirmation: Flickr To Add Video
Michael Arrington
59 comments »
In May Flickr cofounder Stewart Butterfield casually mentioned to me that they would be allowing users to upload video “soon” (see last sentence in this post). Yesterday Yahoo Video GM Mike Folgner reconfirmed this: “Yahoo’s Flickr photo-sharing site will also be adding video,” he said.
It was another throw away statement that was part of a larger article on Yahoo revamping its video site to be more competitive with YouTube. But frankly it was the only interesting thing he said. Playing catch up sucks, and that’s the position that Yahoo Video is in right now. They’ll have to work twice as hard as YouTube and are unlikely to get the return they are looking for.
But Flickr needs video. Too often I return from a trip, upload pictures to Flickr and then just store the videos on my hard drive. I want those videos right next to the photos, with the same tags and in the same sets (albums). They should have added this two years ago…and I’ll be glad to see it later this year.
This is absolutely needed, as per the recent Searchnomics conference YouTube bragged they were twice as large as all other video networks combined
a way for Yahoo to get back into the game.
http://www.web-strategist.com/.....marketing/
I think this could give them a good head start and they have a good chance to gain some ground on youTube. They might not get the teen crowd but I am willing to bet most of their users do video as well as photos and won’t go out of their way to upload to youTube.
Competitions drive innovations, which benefit consumers. Good move for Yahoo!
from a branding and marketing standpoint, Flickr is photos - hence the flicker.
and Youtube is videos - hence the tube.
and both are wildly successful, at that.
now for either one to add a different media to their core focus will just make it weird, to say the least
I agree that Flickr with videos would be awesome, but I am not sure that adding videos is a higher priority than scaling their performance. One of the amazing thing about Flickr is their speed. Even with all these photos and users, the site is still pretty darn fast. That takes a lot of work and engineering.
So I am glad that Flickr guys have been focusing on keeping their speed as fast as it is right now.
There is definitely value to having videos on flickr, but it seems redundant for them to have video features on 2 sites. They’ve had to resolve this kind of redundancy in the past (Yahoo Photos vs. Flickr, MyWeb vs. del.icio.us). Why create more?
I am surprised that they have had so many starts and stops.
Video is the new photo. Flickr - and Yahoo - needs video to compete.
I believe adding video to Flickr will be wildly successful for Yahoo. Youtube’s brand image is already tattered with skateboarding dogs, 50 cent contests, and CNN debates.
Flickr, from my experience at least, is a community of people who are serious about the photos they upload and genuinely share and admire other people’s work, while Youtubers on the other hand, are only looking for a quick laugh.
Flickr video has loads of potential and plenty of room to innovate and compete with Youtube.
Youtube : MySpace :: Flickr : Facebook
errr..
Youtube : Flickr :: MySpace : Facebook
what about JumpCut?
I’ve been using Vimeo to upload videos that are “mine” (meaning: created by me, involving me somehow). They do a good job of creating a community around videos the same way flickr has created community around photos. Vimeo is really inventive and has a great user experience. Flickr, of course, is known for both of those things, so it will be interesting to see how flickr handles videos. It would really be nice to have my photos and videos together on the same site, but it will take some doing to coax me away from vimeo.
BTW, +1 @Frank Stinton on that “video is the new photo” comment. Exactly right.
i use Vimeo too. I love it. i like how it’s simple and doesn’t focus too much on sharing. I just host videos of my son to share with family. I don’t care to share my videos with strangers usually.
But since I already use Flickr for photos, if they do a good job with videos I’ll probably move to Flickr videos.
In terms of playing “catchup”, I’m not sure that will be the case.
If you ignore the video/photo differences between Flickr and YouTube - Flickr wins in terms of it’s API, automation of creating multiple asset formats, layout choices, social networking freatures, organizer . . . blah blah blah.
I don’t see Flickr’s announcement as “just adding video”.
Good move for Yahoo!
> They should have added this two years ago…and I’ll be glad to see it later this year.
Exactly. I’ve waiting for this for too long.
Rename and change the logo of jumpcut to flickr video. Yahoo just needs to add the social networking features similar to Flickr. JumptCut will be much more usefull because you can play around and edit your videos too.
flickr sold too early, they should have waited and launched video feature before selling to yahoo….they had all the hype they needed to build multi billion $ company in web 2.0 hype!
I’m disappointed with Flickr’s limitation. So I make a change to photobucket, facebook or imageshack.us ( imashack is unlimited )
nXqd
great news! can’t wait for video on flickr!
videos on flickr for the casual users
videos on jumpcut for the film students/auteurs
@biz.inc disagree with you as to the marketability of Flickr for video or the need to explain further as in “Flickr Video” as mentioned by another poster. Static images (photos) do not flicker…video (and television) images do, so perhaps it can be viewed as though Flickr is finally realizing their full potential by integrating video. As other posters said though… WAAAYY behind times….
I’ve been using Picasa and Picasa Web Albums for quite a while for both images and video and I cannot believe how seamless the whole process is! Your desktop app compiles and edits your images and whatever tags, then in one click, you post your edited image AND video albums (the ones you wish to have online) to you Picasa Web page (which can be kept completely private) and easily invite others to view it. Meanwhile, the Picasa desktop app keeps organized all the photos and videos you DON’T wish to have online. You then have the freedom to use the photo printing service of your choice as the need arises. What could be simpler?? I’ve never used a better, more complete program for free….
The only thing that could kill Picasa for me would be similar functionality with Flickr, and unlimited storage as Picasa Web only has a paltry 2 GB (and counting as they always point out…but oh so very slowly).
@Warren: picasa with picasaweb is the best combination I have ever experienced. You are right about everything about them but Google has almost denied mac community to have one. This is most disgusting. They think that iPhoto is good enough to have this functionality.
Somebody should explain Google that IPhoto is the worst app on Mac platform and lot of people (like me who are not professionals to use 1000 dollar apps) would love to have Picasa on their MACS. That was the only reason why I had to buy flickr pro account. Now Yahoo has been very very conservative in building software. They don’t have any clients for photo and video organizing. What they should do is to excatly copy Picasa’s model (online+offline) and they will compete directly with Google. If they are can provide unlimited storage for e-mail, they can atleast increase free flickr’s storage so that people are interested. Flickr is a great platform but lacks lots of bells and whistles.
The question is, Will they allow nude videos? They do allow full nudity in their pictures so guess we hav another metacafe.
Flickr video might just tempt me to go pro.
Here’s my wishlist for future Flickr features:
1. A Picasa clone.
2. Online image editing.
3. Different ways to display or view photos.
4. Flickr Scrapbook with plenty of options to customize.
“Flickr Videos” will take the same users than Vimeo does right now. Vimeo even enables its users to link their videos to their Flickr Account… (it posts the preview of the video in the flickr account and post a link to the video in the description).
That some bad news for Vimeo’s staff…
I don’t see why you guys talk about Jumpcut… this service just proved to be totally useless. It’s not about sharing videos it’s about doing poor editing online…
And Yahoo Videos is not better… It’s like Youtube without the ergonomy, and like Dailymotion without the great creative contents…
@RealTime…I assumed you were wrong about Picasa for Mac and went searching for it for you, only to find out you’re exactly right - no Mac version for Picasa! And on the online PicasaWeb help, they lamely point out that they would “pass on your feedback to their developers” (huh?)…but in the meantime you can use one of two uploaders to PicasaWeb. Honestly I don’t see the point of using Picasaweb without the amazing functionality of Picasa desktop. There are loads of sites out there on which to store unlimited video and photos, so why would Google assume you would opt to use their space with half the functionality afforded to PC users? Here’s hoping you Mac users get a fully functional version soon. Here’s also hoping for unlimited storage on PicasaWeb! (or damn near it would suffice)
Here’s the link to the reference I made above:
http://picasa.google.com/suppo.....swer=12569
I’d gladly welcome it. Vimeo, Blip.tv and all these other services are nice. But I like the community and network that already exists at Flickr. Picasa does indeed offer a great alternative for us Windows users. But the community’s just not there and (IMO) the online component just feels so cold and sterile.
They need to roll out both (the new Yahoo video and video for Flickr) at the same time so Flickr *hopefully* won’t become another dumping ground for copyrighted material like YouTube has essentially become. Leave that stuff for the new (and hopefully much nicer) Yahoo Video . . . and prepare for the DMCA takedown onslaught lawsuits that come with it.
This sure is a much awaited addition to flickr. I have been wondering exactly on the same lines, how natural and convenient it would be to host both photos and videos on the same site.
flickr, all the best! this gives youtube some competition, hopefully!
I like the idea. I just hope they allow you to see the original video footage of videos uploaded. Not the terrible flash video (.flv) format that every mainstream video site is using these days! That’s why youtube sucks! The quality on most of the videos is horrible!
They should partner with DIVX.COM /STAGE6.COM. If they do that Flickr Video will be at the top of it’s game!
DIVX is the way to go Yahoo/Flickr! Listen to me! Don’t buy into the lame FLV flash video format to convert the videos uploaded. DIVX Please!
Many photohosting sites have moved on video hosting, like Photobucket. I think Flickr Video would only appeal to the Flickr faithful, unless it proves to be as easy and of better quality than YouTube.
The new web2.0 site http://www.roamoo.com is the 1st photo and video guide for any interesting places in the worldwide. You could upload your unlimited photos and videos which link to the specific place to easily share with the world. And you also have your own page.
Vimeo.com hosts high-quality videos in an environment much warmer and friendlier than youtube and similar video-hosting sites. So far I’ve found vimeo to be the best out there in terms of video-sharing.
AND flickr and vimeo are linked, in that flickr will add a link under the picture saying “view the video on vimeo” and vimeo has the option of posting flickr thumbnails next to the videos. It’s really cool.
Wonder how it’ll be different from YouTube, which is mostly stolen copywrighted material and home videos. How many more video sites of clipped TV programs and of teen girls living-room dancing with falling bra straps are needed?
Ipernity.com already has had this feature for a while, and two months ago with the whole censorship thing a lot of users left flickr to ipernity.
I wonder if the flickr team got themselves some “inspiration” at the other photo-sharing sites.
playing catch up doesnt suck. YOU DO. the answer to your question is yes they will. Jesus Christ is the answer. He keeps me on top of things by the grace of God. but all people are on top of me.