The Inquisitr » Flickr

Flickr back up after morning outage

Kim LaCapria — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:23:59 +0000

Flickr has been having some server issues today, but it appears the service is mostly back up and running as of now.

Images posted to blogs and reportedly were not affected by the outage. The Flickr-ing functionality has been chronicled on the Flickr blog, with a timeline of the repair process (in reverse chronological order):

11:26 AM PDT: We’ve got WWWs serving up again, and we also have an official Help Forum topic here. We’re still working on lingering issues, but things are on the mend.

10:50 AM PDT: Hey, we wanted to make sure you all knew, if you embedded photos from a photopage on Flickr, we are still serving them. So, if they are posted to your blog, your photos will still be showing there. What we are doing now is working on getting all our WWW servers back on for everyone; this includes bringing the API back up, which has been affected as well. Sorry for the downtime to everyone, we hate it as much as you!

10:05 AM PDT: We’re still here working on getting things up and serving to you, shouldn’t be too much longer!

9:18 AM, PDT: Hello! All hands are on deck over here and we’re still working on getting things back up for everyone. Apologies for the disruption!

8:51 AM, PDT: Ahoy everyone! Flickr is experiencing problems at the present time, and our engineers are all in the main engine room, working on resolving the issue. Please hang tight, and we’ll have things back for you as soon as possible. If we need to, we’ll post an update for you here.

Still a bit shaky? You can discuss your lingering Flickr withdrawl here.

Epic Fail: Flickr censors Obama Joker image

Duncan Riley — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:00:25 +0000

Flickr has followed up on its less than stellar form on free speech by censoring a doctored image of the now infamous “Obama Joker” image on the cover of Time Magazine.

According to Thomas Hawk, the image on Flickr received over 20,000 page views until Flickr pulled the image down citing “copyright-infringement concerns” due to the use of the Time Magazine trademark in the image.

I’m not personally a fan of the image, and although I’ve not personally commented on it before, The Inquisitr has covered it, and I don’t necessarily disagree with what has been posted here. But my personal views are irrelevant to the case: love it or hate it, the image, even in the doctored Time Magazine form, constitutes a derivative work, and is legal. It may also constitute a parody work as well.

That conclusion isn’t a matter of interpretation either, because the law is clear. From Wikipedia:

For copyright protection to attach to [a derivative work]…. it must display some originality of its own. It cannot be a rote, uncreative variation on the earlier, underlying work. The latter work must contain sufficient new expression, over and above that embodied in the earlier work for the latter work to satisfy copyright law’s requirement of originality.

That I don’t agree with the image doesn’t mean I agree with the decision to pull it. The price of free speech is to defend the speech you don’t like, and hence Flickr should be condemned for yet another stupid decision on copyright, one that on the face of it they’ve made even without receiving a claim from Time Magazine.

Flickr Group Reenacts Far Side Cartoons in Real Life

Duncan Riley — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:30:04 +0000

Gary Larson’s Far Side has long been a favored cartoon around the world, but some fans take their dedication more seriously than others.

Introducing the Far Side Reenactments Group on Flickr, a group of people committed to recreating Far Side classics in real life.

Shots above and below. Some hit the mark well, others not so close. The group started 2 years ago and only has two pages of shots, but a little bit of publicity might give them a kick along for some new reenactments. Enjoy.

Obama’s Flickr

Dominic Rivera — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 05:50:38 +0000

You’re Barack Obama. It’s November 4. You’re in the final moments of of the Presidential election. Polling places have closed. Canvassing of votes have started. You, together with your family are eagerly awaiting the final results. Network stations are cautiously announcing final counts from different states. You got Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida… You are are the President-elect.

Thanks to the Obama campaign for being so Flickr-savvy, aside from using the Internet to its limits (especially in soliciting $5). Here’s how it was during the anxious moments leading to Obama speech as President-elect.

More photos from Obama’s Flickr account.

Acid found to be drug of choice among Flickr staff

Duncan Riley — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:47:12 +0000

Welcome to the latest service from Flickr, Flickr Explore, where 500 of the best pictures uploaded to Flickr each day are rotated through a rainbow spewing from the mouth of a Panda.

And no, I’m not making that last part up, and yes, the screenshot above is EXACTLY what you’ll find on the site here.

Mark over at Mashable has no explanation for it, but I’m going to suggest the only obvious one I can think of: drugs. Acid to be precise, and lots of it. WTF doesn’t even begin to describe this.

The new Flickr, even the change embraces minimalism

Duncan Riley — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:19:45 +0000

Flickr is offering a sneak look at their new layout, in a move said to make the Flickr experience more social.

Added to the page are group photos (it was previously just a link) and “interesting photos” below the fold. This is the official spin:

Whatever the best part of Flickr is for you, your new home page now surfaces much more of the action going on around you on Flickr. More of the amazing photos, groups, and interesting tidbits that show up on Flickr every day. And while we were at it, we made it easier for you to turn down the volume on things you don’t want to see, or just find some help.

And it’s exciting!

We’re excited to share the changes with you!

Now it’s easy to hate on sites who decide to change their layout, Facebook being a deserving case in point, but here’s the thing: the only real change is that photos are now in the left column instead of the right, and there’s a few extras photos. Buried in there someone where is also suppose to be an activity stream, because when uploading photos, that’s the first thing many people will want

Before and after

I’m not excited, but I don’t hate it either. Flickr helped popularize the minimalist layout, and they’ve kept true to their roots going for a minimalist change. The good news though is so few people will notice anything different, that they won’t be facing a Facebook style revolt.

Flickr

AIM Offers New Social Aggregation Tool

JR — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 18:01:33 +0000

AIM is expanding its reach to include integration with other social-oriented services.

The options come as part of the newly launched BuddyUpdates feature for AOL’s instant messaging platform. The feature lets you link your buddy list to third-party sites including Twitter, Blogger, Flickr, del.icio.us, Mixx, StumbleUpon, and YouTube. There’s also an option to add an unlisted service, so you could theoretically connect almost anything — a non-Blogger blog or a FriendFeed page, for example.

Once linked up, friends can see your recent activity from the AIM sign-in page or right within the AIM window itself. The BuddyUpdates service is still under beta mode.

Flickr Co-Founder Signs With Secretive New Startup

JR — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:08:18 +0000

One of the co-founders of Flickr has a new startup home.

Caterina Fake — who, along with her co-founder husband, decided to leave parent company Yahoo last month — will become chief product officer at the yet-to-launch Hunch.

Fake’s blog only says that Hunch is “a consumer internet application” that “will have a lot of user participation” and “is more than a little fun.”

“Beyond that, we’re still making it up,” she says.

CNET News, however, reports that Hunch is a recommendation engine driven by “collective crowd intelligence.” Its sources predict a powerful service with “top-notch” technology. No launch date has been revealed.

Fake says she’ll remain in San Francisco even while working for the New York-based startup. Her husband and former business collaborator, she says, will not be joining her in the new venture.

Your Public Photos Could Become My Disguise

JR — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:24:54 +0000

Your online photo collection could soon be used to disguise strangers.

Scientists at Columbia University have come up with facial swapping software that uses publicly posted pictures as a kind of high-tech camouflage. The concept’s being suggested to Google for its Street View program. The team believes its creation could provide a better alternative to blurring faces on Google’s street shots — a practice started a couple of months ago to protect people’s privacy.

The program works by randomly selecting a face from a database of more than 33,000 photos, pulled from sites such as Flickr and Yahoo Images. It then creates a composite, taking the eyes and nose from the new image and placing them on top of the original face. The software is smart enough to match lighting, pose, and resolution so the parts don’t look out-of-place. It then aligns the features, color corrects, and blends the new face together — and the whole thing happens without any human guidance.

The results are a bit jarring at times, but they definitely do their job. The scientists are looking at offering the software to military or police groups for identity protecting purposes. It could also be marketed for everyday use, letting you switch out a bad grin with a more pleasing shot of your face — or, if you prefer, someone else’s.

First look at new microblogging service YouAre: Twitter 2.0?

Duncan Riley — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:53:36 +0000

Spanish microblogging service YouAre has moved into private beta after a year in development.

A lot has happened in the microblogging space in the last twelve months, but Blogs Media, the company behind YouAre has maintained a steady as she goes, get it right development approach. The private beta is planned to last anywhere between “several weeks to several months” until such time the Blogs Media time thinks the site is right to launch.

So what does YouAre offer over the growing sea of competitors?

YouAre combines Twitter, Tumblr, Linkedin, Del.icio.us and the sites “secret ingredient” (their definition). At the basic level YouAre offers 140 character limited short messaging, complete with user profiles, support for @replies and DMs, and the ability to follow friends. The next layer of YouAre (and that’s the best word I can use to describe the feature sets) is Pownce and Tumblr like. Users can share video or pictures, although notably the site doesn’t offer hosting of either at this stage.

The next layer goes off into an unexpected tangent: LinkedIn style professional bios, including support for schools attended and work experience. Layer four takes us into what they describe as De.licio.us territory, but it’s part FriendFeed; yes, users can import external feeds into YouAre, although at this stage the choices are limited to De.licio.us, Flickr and YouTube.

But wait, there’s more! because YouAre also supports manual geolocation, so you can connect with others within your same area, based on the location based in your profile, or if you were visiting somewhere it’s as hard as placing /country/city after YouAre.com.

So what is it? Well it’s not a cake, or even an onion, despite the many layers. My very first impression is that unlike some of the other services I’ve reviewed lately, YouAre wins on name and aesthetics. It’s a great name, and Blogs Media has really thought about the looks of the site. It’s not OMG this is amazingly gorgeous great, but it’s pleasing to work in.

If I’m forced to label it as something, I (with some hesitation) would perhaps label it Twitter 2.0, or even a more professionally focused version of Twitter. It builds on the key concepts of Twitter, and adds to them in a way that isn’t overly complicated, or in a way that has a polarizing effect in an effort to be different (eg Plurk). Any user of Twitter will be able to sign up to YouAre and feel right at home. Although the various layers of the service sound complicated, in practice it feels like a safe, natural progression in this space.

As mentioned above, I don’t have a date as yet for when YouAre will open up ~~nor do I have any invites yet~~(see below). There’s work to be done, but despite entering late into the space, here’s what I like about YouAre already: these guys are determined on launching this as a fully fledged, working platform:

Right now, our priorities are: launching a desktop widget for Windows and MAC, freeing the API, and optimizing the mobile interface, now that the site works on cell phones and smartphones without javascript support.

Yes, they won’t be launching until all the various parts of the service jigsaw puzzle are in place. In an age of half arsed product launches, isn’t it refreshing to see a company focused on launching a complete package.

Screenshots and YouAre’s spreadsheet below, and I’ll be following YouAre closely as it continues to be developed.

Update: we now have 25 invitations for Inquisitr readers. The first 25 people to email with this Subject: “The Inquisitr Invitations” get in. Also I forgot to add that coming in the next couple of days will be the ability to import contacts from external services, including Gmail and Twitter.

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6 Alternatives To Flickr Now Yahoo Is In Full Control

Duncan Riley — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:53:00 +0000

The sad news today: Flickr founders Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield are leaving Yahoo. Flickr has thrived despite being owned by Yahoo, and much of its ongoing success has been down to Fake and Butterfield keeping control over the layout and feature set on the site. If you’re like me, the only reason you actually have a Yahoo login or regularly use a Yahoo login is due to Flickr and nothing else. With both gone the site will be left to a Yahoo design team that.. well…creates stuff like this. Many users kept using Flickr post Yahoo acquisition in loyalty to Butterfield and Fake, but with both gone some users will be looking elsewhere. So what’s on offer?

Smugmug

Smugmug is a leader in the Flickr alternatives space. Great looks are combined with good traffic and a strong community to deliver a viable and attractive alternative. The one catch though: Smugmug is a paid service with only a free trial period, a speedhump for the majority of Flickr users on a free account, but premium Flickr users with pro accounts won’t mind paying $39.95/ yr for unlimited uploads and storage. Smugmug also offers video hosting for $59.95/ yr, although with a huge range of free options in the video space I don’t immediately see the appeal.

Zooomr

Zooomr was once the Flickr in waiting, but after uptime issues last year the site now calls itself a “social utility” that offers a Twitter style short message service. Founder Kristopher Tate has also been focusing on the Japanese market. Worth consideration as the traffic is reasonable and the user base fairly active.

Photobucket

Before you ask, the answer is yes, Photobucket. The MySpace (FIM) owned Photobucket has matured past its roots as a photo uploading site for social network profiles and is now a fully fledged photo sharing site with its own community. The selling point: stable, strong ownership means that you’ll never lose your photos. The downside: it’s still as ugly as sin. Great for 12 year olds with ADHD, bad for anyone older than 25 with 20/20 vision.

Picasa Web Albums

Google has long lagged in photo sharing, but more and more lately images hosted on Picasa Web Albums keep popping up. Focused on Google’s excellent Picasa photo editing tool, Google offers functional and easy to use photo hosting that will never go down. For Mac users there is a Picasa photo uploader which looks nearly identical to the Flickr equivalent, so the switch isn’t that big. My guess is that Picasa Web Albums is the next big service in photo sharing, although it won’t appeal to serious photographers. Also like most things Google, it’s not exactly pretty either.

Dot Mac/ Mobile Me

Apple’s Dot Mac (soon to be Mobile Me) service isn’t cheap, but the built in support for photo galleries within iPhoto creates seriously good looking photo galleries. The downside is a complete lack of social sharing or social anything really, it’s great looking photos and nothing else. I personally use this service for private galleries, or to be more precise photos my 5 year old son has taken that I want to share only with family and close friends.

23 is the smallest service we’ve put on this list, but it stands out as being a simple, well designed, attractive photo sharing site with a active community. The risk with smaller services is that they might not go the distance, however everything feels right about this site.

I’m not about to cancel my Flickr membership, but already I know I’m not alone in considering other services, so I hope the list helps. If there are any services not included that you’d recommend, leave a comment below, and also let us know why you use them.

Tickr Offers Flickr Browsing Via Time Line

Duncan Riley — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:02:10 +0000

Tickr from Dipity is a Flickr browser that delivers results in chronological order on a visual time line.

The site opens with a search engine style interface with popular results showing. Users can search for pics by tag or by location of the shot. Results are then delivered on the time line and can be scrolled backwards or forwards.

I don’t know much about the company behind it, their about page is spartan but they launched a similar service for YouTube back in May according to this TechCrunch post.

It’s a simple, functional service that provides a decent front end for searching Flickr. Worth a look.