Flickr News
From Flickr:
On November 1, 2018, we announced how we’d begin bringing Flickr back to its roots: an active, photo-sharing community. This meant upgrading our Pro accounts and changing Free accounts to encourage photographers to use Flickr again for interaction and inspiration and not just for backup storage. A big part of that inspiration comes from those of you who have shared your photography with Creative Commons licensing. And from historical, governmental, and nonprofit organizations that have shared amazing photos via The Flickr Commons. Those photos, and your ability to share them, are important to us. That hasn’t changed.
Those photos aren’t going anywhere. To understand what does change, though, we first need to understand what The Flickr Commons and Creative Commons are.
The Commons Difference
The Flickr Commons is for photos that come from institutions that want to share their digital collections with as many people around the world as they can. These tend to be historical images whose copyright has expired or government images that are automatically in the public domain since taxpayers have technically already paid for them.
Photos from NASA, The Smithsonian, The National Archives UK, and The British Library, for example, have been shared in The Flickr Commons. As part of The Flickr Commons, all these organizations already were Pro or have received a free Pro account from us, so they have unlimited storage.
The Creative Commons (CC) organization has developed a suite of licenses that give individual photographers or groups great tools for licensing their photography for others to freely use. The photographer keeps their copyright and gives the public an easy way to use their images as long as the license terms are followed.
The Flickr Commons and Creative Commons are different, thus our storage changes affect each differently (or not at all).
Are Commons Photos Being Deleted?
No. And once more for good measure: no, Commons photos are not being deleted.
The Flickr Commons photos (those uploaded by the archival, governmental, etc. institutions we are working with) are safe. We are extremely proud of these partnerships. These photos won’t be deleted as a result of any of our announced changes. The only reason they’d disappear is if the organization that uploaded them decided to delete them.
Photos that were Creative Commons licensed before our announcement are also safe. We won’t be deleting anything that was uploaded with a CC license before November 1, 2018. Even if you had more than 1,000 photos or videos with a CC license. However, if you do have more than 1,000 photos or videos uploaded, you’ll be unable to upload additional photos after January 8, 2019, unless you upgrade to a Pro account.
Bottom line: Flickr Commons photos will not be deleted. Anything uploaded with a CC license before November 1, 2018, won’t be deleted, but users will need to upgrade to Pro to upload more than 1,000 photos or videos.
What About Non-Profits?
We know and understand that there are groups out there that work hard to scrape together every nickel and dime to run their organization. And we want to help remove any stress that may come from finding a place to host photos. We’ve worked with 501(c)(3) charitable organizations for years at SmugMug to provide them with unlimited, free storage, and we’ll be doing the same at Flickr.
Organizations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 350.org, and Second Harvest are already using Flickr to share photos of the amazing work they do. And now we’ll be working with them to ensure Pro isn’t a cost they need to worry about.
In fact, you can fill out the form from this page with information about your 501(c)(3) organization or international charity, and we’ll work with you to get your free Pro account set up.
The Future of the Commons
Freely licensed photos are deeply important to us. After SmugMug acquired Flickr, one of the first meetings we had was with Ryan Merkley, the CEO of Creative Commons. We want to keep that partnership alive and strong, and we are actively working on how to grow it for the future.
“We’ll be working with Flickr to look for ways to continue growing and archiving the commons,” Merkley said. “When Flickr users apply CC licenses to their works, they are inviting everyone to use their works freely and with very few restrictions. That’s an incredible gift to the world, and that generosity should be acknowledged and preserved into perpetuity for everyone to enjoy.”
Whatever changes come in the years going forward, the importance of these photos will always matter to us. We not only want to preserve the photos we have, we want to keep partnering with organizations such as libraries, museums, and government agencies to contribute to The Flickr Commons as well. And we will continue to work hard to keep these photos safe and available for the world to view and enjoy.
From Flickr:
Let’s be candid. Flickr at its best is a place to connect, to discover, and to evolve as photographers and lovers of photography. This is the world’s largest photographer-focused community. Here, together, this newly-independent community can shape the future of photography itself.
Today we are announcing updates to Flickr’s Pro and Free account offerings.
Flickr Pro is better than ever. For only $49.99 per year, get unlimited storage, ad-free browsing, advanced stats, an unmatched community, and more.
- Unlimited Storage. The only limit is your imagination. Upload as many photos as you can take, always at true full resolution.
- Ad-free Browsing. Focus on what matters. A fully ad-free Flickr experience for you and your visitors.
- Advanced Stats. See which of your photos are trending now, and which have performed the best over the life of your Flickr Pro account.
Plus all these great new Pro-only features.
- Premier Support - Skip the line. Flickr Pros now receive priority assistance from our new world-class support team. Available now.
- More Partner Discounts - Save on photography essentials. Discounts on Creative Cloud from Adobe, 50% off a custom portfolio site on SmugMug, gear from Peak Design, and many more. Coming November.
- Advanced Stats on Mobile - Stats in your pocket. All the photo stats you know and love, available in-app. Coming November.
- Increased Exposure - All Pro members as of January 1, 2019 are eligible for priority exposure in the next iteration of Explore. Coming early 2019.
- New 5K Photo Display Option - Look your best. Your images are beautifully optimized for any screen, from smartphone to jumbotron. Pro images display at resolutions up to 5K. Coming early 2019.
- 10 Minute Videos - More time to tell your story. Play back videos for up to 10 minutes, increased from 3. Coming early 2019.
Hands down the best deal in photos.
Unlimited storage, ad-free browsing, and a global community of over 100 million photographers for less than half the cost of Apple, Amazon, or Google. Sign up today and get 30% off the first year. Discount available through November 30.
Free accounts will soon be limited to 1,000 photos or videos. Flickr isn’t Flickr without the contributions and participation of our free members, and we remain committed to a vibrant free offering.
If you are a free member with more than 1,000 photos or videos, you will have ample time to upgrade to Pro (for 30% off your first year) or download your photos and videos. Read more about this decision.
New simple login! Coming in January, there will be no need for a Yahoo account to use Flickr.
SmugMug and Flickr Unite to Form the World’s Most Influential Photography Community
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – (April 20, 2018) – SmugMug, the largest, most comprehensive, independent photo management platform in the world, today announced it has agreed to purchase Flickr, the online photo management and sharing application. Together, SmugMug and Flickr represent the world’s most influential community of photographers, marrying SmugMug’s deep industry expertise and strong digital tools with Flickr’s global tribe of tens of millions of photographers. Following the close of the transaction, the brands will continue to operate as separate entities with the shared goal of providing photographers with both a place to fit in and a place to stand out. SmugMug and Flickr believe that all photographers—from the hobbyist to the prosumer to the professional—belong together.
“Since day one our passion has been empowering photographers to tell the stories they want to tell, the way they want to tell them, and our investment in Flickr reaffirms this commitment,” said Don MacAskill, CEO of SmugMug. “Uniting the SmugMug and Flickr brands will make the whole photography community stronger and better connected. The enduring quality of photography is so much more than clicks and likes—photography has the power to change the world. Together, we can preserve photography as the global language of storytelling.”
Established in 2002 as one of the first photo storage and sharing services, SmugMug is home to millions of passionate photographers and billions of secure photographs. The SmugMug platform provides photographers with website designs that offer a safe, easy and convenient way to share, showcase and sell their stories. SmugMug gives photographers complete control over who accesses their photos, and provides robust e-commerce features that make it easy to turn passion into profit.
At its heart, SmugMug encourages and empowers its community of photographers to learn, share, and inspire one another. SmugMug provides 24/7 support, from real people, along with tips, tutorials, and training events, and also hosts webinars and forums with leading photographers.
Founded in 2004, Flickr is an active, global community of photographers that encourages users to find their inspiration. Home to tens of billions of photos and two million groups, photography lovers come to Flickr to share their passion, discover spectacular images, hone their craft, and engage with friends old and new.
“We share SmugMug’s mission to cater to people—professionals, amateurs, and everybody in between— who invest time, energy and love into their photos,” said Andrew Stadlen of Flickr. “We look forward to becoming part of the SmugMug family and continue to grow, innovate and delight our global community of photographers.”
Additional Information
by Sean Setters
Verizon has agreed to purchase Yahoo for the paltry sum of $4.83 billion. Considering that Microsoft offered to buy Yahoo only 8 years ago for a cool $45 billion, "paltry sum" seems like a fair descriptor even if Yahoo's glory days seem far behind them.
Included in the purchase – and of special interest to our site visitors – is Flickr, the still-popular photo sharing site. While Flickr may not be the juggernaut it once was, it's a service that I still personally enjoy using on a daily basis.
Even though I have many photo sharing accounts (500px, SmugMug, Google Photos, Instagram, etc), Flickr continues to be the one I like best. It's simple to use and there are wonderful groups who enjoy aiding in one's growth in photography. And even though Flickr has seemed neglected at times over the last few years, it has steadily improved (for the most part), regaining some relevance in the process (in my opinion, of course).
However, Verizon's takeover of Flickr gives me pause. I doubt Flickr is highly profitable in its current form, so I'm concerned about what changes Verizon might bring about to better capitalize on their investment.
Ads everywhere? A higher price for Pro Accounts? Disk quota limitations placed on all members? A complete liquidation assets or shutting it down entirely? Your guess is as good as mine.
Only time will tell if I am needlessly worried or hopelessly spinning my wheels with a photo sharing service that's seen its last hurrah.
From the Flickr Blog:
Flickr for iOS 9 is here! And we have some cool new features to help you get the most out of the latest Apple software and devices.
3D Touch
On the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, we’ve added 3D Touch support, enabling you to preview photos, people, notifications and more with a light press of your screen.
In your Flickr Camera Roll, we’ve developed a new 3D Touch gesture to help you find your best shot. Lightly press a photo to see a preview, then move your finger left/right to page through neighboring photos. Once you’ve found your favorite, press harder to Pop full-screen.
Quick Actions
New in iOS 9, 3D Touch “Quick Actions” let you do the things you do most often, faster and in fewer steps. Lightly press our app icon to upload a photo, skip directly to notifications or the feed or to kick off a search right from your homescreen.
Spotlight Search
Using Spotlight search in iOS 9, search for albums, groups or recently-viewed photos without even opening the Flickr app.
Universal Links
With universal link support, links you send or receive will now open directly in the Flickr app, instead of as a web page in Safari. So the next time you share photos from a night out, last weekend or a recent trip, the recipient can view your photos in a beautiful, interactive and native experience.
Get the latest Flickr app for iOS – available in the App Store!
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