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Whatever happened to Flickr?

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Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#91

Post by Lammy »

glenstein wrote: post #87
ksec wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often think Marissa Mayer would have been great as COO. Not so much as a CEO or Product Designer. I remember Yahoo had another candidate that planned to turn Yahoo into a media company. Which even at the time I thought was a much better idea and direction. Instead the broad choose Mayer, and try to compete head on with Google. In some sense it wasn't just Marissa, it was also the board's fault.

>I remember Yahoo had another candidate that planned to turn Yahoo into a media company. Which even at the time I thought was a much better idea and direction. Instead the broad choose Mayer, and try to compete head on with Google. This is exactly right, and it perfectly highlights the dilemma of Yahoo that made it an unwinnable battle. "Being a media company" would have been a real answer, and a real decision that g…

> the reality was that Yahoo was in decline and her project was to reverse an existing decline

Also known as the "glass cliff" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_cliff

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#92

Post by ksec »

geodel wrote: post #79
ksec wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often think Marissa Mayer would have been great as COO. Not so much as a CEO or Product Designer. I remember Yahoo had another candidate that planned to turn Yahoo into a media company. Which even at the time I thought was a much better idea and direction. Instead the broad choose Mayer, and try to compete head on with Google. In some sense it wasn't just Marissa, it was also the board's fault.

> I often think Marissa Mayer would have been great as COO. Really? What was her operational expertise?

Sorry I wasn't clear. COO not in terms of traditional Operation and company structure. But in terms of startup /company hierarchy, as the 2nd person in charge like Tim Cook in Apple and Sheryl Sandberg in Facebook. To Quote Sheryl

>“He basically explained nicely that my job was to do the things that Mark (Zuckerberg) did not want to focus on as much,” Sandberg said of the 2007 meeting that lasted several hours with the chief operating officer of Apple Inc.

“That was his job with Steve (Jobs). And he explained that the job would change over time and I should be prepared for that.”

Marissa shares many similar traits as Tim Cook. Although she seems to be extremely ambitious which might limit the number of CEO she is willing to serve.

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#93

Post by shostack »

biztos wrote: post #55

I know it's unhealthy, but I harbor a fantasy in which the modest and user-loving folks from SmugMug[0] pivot Flickr into an all-encompassing portal system a la iMode[1] and drive the productivity vampire Slack[2] out of business, ideally leaving Mr Butterfield a few dollars shy of gull-wing doors[3]. [0]: https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/20/smugmug-acquires-flickr [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-mode [2]: https:/…

Can confirm that SmugMug and Flickr people love their users and customers. Every single person I interacted with during my time there cared a great deal about the people and photos the service supported. Most people there were into photography themselves as well at some level (personally or professionally).

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#94

Post by simonw »

johannes1234321 wrote: post #77
kaichanvong wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

good point! Instagram happened!

While Instagram and Flickr (at least in theory) serve a different audience. Flickr is for the professional or aspiring amateur photographer, to manage their photos and build show cases. Maybe even selling their photos online. Instagram is a mass market social network

Flickr was a mass market social network back in ~2007 if you squint at it in the right way.

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#95

Post by amyjess »

hakfoo wrote: post #76
lotsofpulp wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

JC Penney was on its way out, or at least in terminal decline. It did not matter who took the helm, the change to online shopping meant there was going to be consolidation as demand for in person shopping went down. Even Macys is struggling, and now they have a part of the store that sells basically non returnable junk, like a dollar store. There is typically only room for 1 or 2 retail businesses now per market segm…

Macy's seemed to slide significantly downmarket over the last few decades. I feel like, growing up in the 80s and 90s, in a place where they weren't, it was seen as an upper-tier product, a notch below Neiman-Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue, but decidedly fancier than Penney's or Sears. Then they either went acquisition-mad, or started rebranding other stores they owned (not sure which) because a local chain became Macy'…

Probably an acquisition. In 2005, Macy's bought May Department Stores, which owned a large number of regional department stores. May liked letting each chain have their own identity, but Macy's just wanted everything in their business to bear the Macy's name, so after the May acquisition closed storied brands such as Marshall Field's, Foley's, and Robinsons-May disappeared off the face of the Earth.

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#96

Post by ghaff »

simonw wrote: post #94
johannes1234321 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While Instagram and Flickr (at least in theory) serve a different audience. Flickr is for the professional or aspiring amateur photographer, to manage their photos and build show cases. Maybe even selling their photos online. Instagram is a mass market social network

Flickr was a mass market social network back in ~2007 if you squint at it in the right way.

You'd have to squint very very hard.

Certainly lots of people who used Flickr for free online photo storage are on Instagram today. But the social network aspect of Flickr was always pretty focused on the prosumer and, perhaps to a lesser degree, pro base who were willing to pay an annual fee.

It's not clear to me that Flickr (and now Flickr/Smugmug) could have co-existed on the same service as Instagram. So the Flickr could have been Instagram narrative, which if true would have been great for the founders, would also have been awful for the most serious users of the Flickr service.

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#97

Post by garbagetime »

ianlevesque wrote: post #28
pythonic_hell wrote: post #3

At the beginning of 2021 I completely move my life away from facebooks ecosystem. As a hobbies photographer I moved from Instagram to Flickr, I wish I had done it earlier! Flickr as a tool is very focused on creators. Once you start using it you realize that the company isn't optimizing for clicks and content consumption. This results in a product and community who’s standard of quality is leagues ahead of anything e…

Doesn't sound like a successful or even self-sustaining online community though: > In 2019, SmugMug started deleting Flickr images of free users, except for the newest 1,000 and Creative Commons images. > User Frank Michel estimated that the site had lost 63% of its images as a result. In 2020, SmugMug increased the fee for a Pro account to $60 per year, saying that the site was still losing money. > It would appear…

I don't see how your conclusion follows from the text you quoted

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#98

Post by mullingitover »

ipaddr wrote: post #44
pythonic_hell wrote: post #3

At the beginning of 2021 I completely move my life away from facebooks ecosystem. As a hobbies photographer I moved from Instagram to Flickr, I wish I had done it earlier! Flickr as a tool is very focused on creators. Once you start using it you realize that the company isn't optimizing for clicks and content consumption. This results in a product and community who’s standard of quality is leagues ahead of anything e…

Flickr was a failed video game that turned a feature into a product. For all those that say you can't pivot this raducally I would say sometimes you can.

I heard Tinder was originally going to be a coupon app before they pivoted.

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#100

Post by bborud »

This post made me have another look at Flickr, where I have a pro account just for the sake of my old images not disappearing.

It just isn't worth what I'm paying. I'm better off setting up my own static site.

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