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Whatever happened to Flickr?

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Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#201

Post by mkr-hn »

codetrotter wrote: post #183
rocqua wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You build an app that will create your backups for you using your free image sharing account. Or maybe instead of backups it's for big filetransfers, or sharing somewhat secret documents. The main point is to make use of the effective endless storage, rather than to store things hidden in plain sight.

I remember also back when GMail first became available to people by invitation, and at the time the amount of storage you were given, while not as impressive by today’s standards, was pretty significant at the time. And someone created a system to allow you to backup files from your computer onto your GMail. I wonder if that system inspired Google to build Google Drive. Here’s an article from the time, and an excerpt…

People were clamoring for Google to make Google Drive in the same way people were clamoring for Apple to make the iPhone.

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#202

Post by mkr-hn »

nullifidian wrote: post #193
jboy55 wrote: post #182

Amazingly no one has brought up the declining sales of DSLR cameras. https://www.statista.com/statistics/799526/shipments-of-digi... Flickr is great when, and arguably designed for, uploading photos from your computer. This after you dumped your DSLR's photos and edited them. The primary source of photos is now a phone, so services designed around that fare better. Also, the professional photographer market doesn't r…

DSLRs have been replaced with mirrorless cameras, some of which are full frame and no less capable.

These are mostly replacements rather than first cameras. It's still a shrinking niche relative to smartphone photography.

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#203

Post by acdha »

petilon wrote: post #155
dpark wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flickr had already failed before Mayer ever showed up at Yahoo. They pretty much ignored it after the purchase aside from forcing yahoo logins. Mayer’s failure with Flickr is the same as SmugMug’s: an inability to revive a dying product. At least she tried. But also Flickr was hardly the biggest problem at Yahoo.

> At least she tried. There are no participation trophies in business. This isn't kindergarten. Before spending shareholder's money on an expensive project she should have checked if it makes sense to spend money on it. If she made the wrong call she alone is responsible for the mistake. > They pretty much ignored it after the purchase aside from forcing yahoo logins. Not true. They fully revamped the user experience…

> Before spending shareholder's money on an expensive project she should have checked if it makes sense to spend money on it.

What’s your experience turning failing businesses around? I’m not a huge fan but I find it conspicuous how successfully the CEOs who created the mess have shifted the blame to the one who was hired to fix what was known to be a failing business at the time.

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#205

Post by myko »

can16358p wrote: post #167
myko wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instagram still doesn't have an iPad app Bizarre considering they have some of the finest iOS developers in the world

Because they absolutely don't need to have it.

They don't, but it shows how far behind they are competitors like TikTok who do have a functional iPad app

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#206

Post by rakoo »

ineedasername wrote: post #174
0x640x6D wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I interviewed for an engineer role at Flickr right after they were acquired by Yahoo. It was a full day grueling interview in one of the San Jose towers with all the originals, Cal, Allspaw, Kellan, etc. The last interview was with Stewart. He walked in with his laptop and pulled up my resume and saw that I was from Texas. He asked if I'd ever been to Marfa. He then asked if I'd ever been to El Paso. He then asked if…

>El Paso That seems surreal. Maybe by that point Stewart figured that anyone passed through to him had the technical chops, and the rest was about personality & culture fit?

What does knowing this song mean about your personality and culture fit ?

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#207

Post by bborud »

dpark wrote: post #112
bborud wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can blame Marissa Mayer for a lot of things. But Flickr was doomed the second they were acquired by Yahoo!.

Mayer can’t be blamed for much at yahoo. She was brought in to save a sinking ship and it turned out to be unsalvageable. Steve Jobs couldn’t have turned that one around.

I think the main problem was that Mayer never managed to answer one simple question: "what is Yahoo supposed to be good at?".

I'm not sure the comparison to Jobs is fair since Marissa had very limited leadership experience and completely lacked Jobs' ability to drive product development (I've sat through her reviews and regardless of whatever myth has been created around her, I don't think she was a driver of progress so much as an annoying, unfocused, unpleasant micro-manager who limited everyone around her to her myopic vision. That attitude doesn't scale beyond a junior VP position).

Jobs actually did the one thing Marissa couldn't: he was exceedingly clear on what Apple was going to do well. Right down to simplifying the product strategy so much even consumers understood it.

But in all fairness, even with a clear vision, there were sharks in the water at all sides distracting the leadership from doing their job.

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#208

Post by dpark »

bborud wrote: post #207
dpark wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mayer can’t be blamed for much at yahoo. She was brought in to save a sinking ship and it turned out to be unsalvageable. Steve Jobs couldn’t have turned that one around.

I think the main problem was that Mayer never managed to answer one simple question: "what is Yahoo supposed to be good at?". I'm not sure the comparison to Jobs is fair since Marissa had very limited leadership experience and completely lacked Jobs' ability to drive product development (I've sat through her reviews and regardless of whatever myth has been created around her, I don't think she was a driver of progres…

I think that’s fair. It’s the same struggle that Bartz had and Yang before her. As you said, there were sharks on all sides. Yahoo was no longer the leader in anything significant once Google showed up.

Even in hindsight it’s hard to see a winning play for Mayer’s Yahoo. Even if Mayer had been visionary enough to build something like Chrome at Yahoo, Google would have beaten them to delivery or overwhelmed them shortly after. (Chrome might have been a compelling move for Bartz, who could have done it early enough to actually beat Google out the door.) Maybe if she’d seen Instagram coming she could have turned Flickr into that, but it’s not clear that would have changed the trajectory much, given that Instagram itself only sold for a billion in 2012 and Yahoo was trying to justify its continued existence while sitting on top of 30 billion of Alibaba.

All this is to say that maybe Mayer is a terrible leader (I honestly don’t know), but I don’t see that she bears most of the blame for Yahoo collapsing.

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#209

Post by ineedasername »

rakoo wrote: post #206
ineedasername wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>El Paso That seems surreal. Maybe by that point Stewart figured that anyone passed through to him had the technical chops, and the rest was about personality & culture fit?

What does knowing this song mean about your personality and culture fit ?

This song in particular? Not much. The entire conversation, assuming it was more than 5 minutes of listening to the song? Perhaps whether or not you can get along with the person. I'm not saying that's what was going on: I think it's entirely possible that it was just some general weirdness. Or Stewart had already decided the person wasn't getting the job & wasn't going to waste time on tech talk when they could have a pleasant conversation about something else. I don't know, but I think there are other plausible explanations than the "weirdness" one. But massively wealthy tech founders are often an odd bunch, so "weirdness" certainly wouldn't surprise me.

Re: Whatever happened to Flickr?

#210

Post by bborud »

dpark wrote: post #208
bborud wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the main problem was that Mayer never managed to answer one simple question: "what is Yahoo supposed to be good at?". I'm not sure the comparison to Jobs is fair since Marissa had very limited leadership experience and completely lacked Jobs' ability to drive product development (I've sat through her reviews and regardless of whatever myth has been created around her, I don't think she was a driver of progres…

I think that’s fair. It’s the same struggle that Bartz had and Yang before her. As you said, there were sharks on all sides. Yahoo was no longer the leader in anything significant once Google showed up. Even in hindsight it’s hard to see a winning play for Mayer’s Yahoo. Even if Mayer had been visionary enough to build something like Chrome at Yahoo, Google would have beaten them to delivery or overwhelmed them short…

I think a winning play would have had to be based on some of their existing strengths rather than start something entirely green-field. For instance, there was a surprising amount of good platform technology at Yahoo! that could have gone somewhere interesting with more juice behind it. (It was managed like a means to and end, not an end in itself. This is what set companies like Google apart from Yahoo, Lycos and all the early 2000s portal companies)

I'm not sure products like Flickr was salvageable. I think I would have just starter over with more stringent technical goals to allow for more flexibility in enabling a product strategy that could remain flexible. (First, it has to be able to serve images properly - at the very least).

A winning play would have needed at least 3 if not 4 years to bear fruit as well. Without opportunists trying to force their way into a controlling position. And that wasn't going to happen.

The problem with Yang, Bartz and Semel was that none of them were the kind of people who "get it". They were not part of Internet or tech culture so they lacked all instinct. On top of that, Semel was a greedy asshole I have absolutely no sympathy for.

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