Yahoo unveils the new Flickr with 1TB of free space

[Arthur]

I'm impressed!

 

Source: Flickr / Yahoo / Android App (via The Verge)

 

Your World, in Full Resolution

Photos tell the stories — stories we’re inspired to relive, share with our friends, or capture simply to express ourselves. Collecting these moments is a part of our everyday. Since 2005, Flickr has become synonymous with inspiring imagery. Today, we’re thrilled to take Flickr even further with a beautiful, completely re-imagined experience that puts photos front and center. When it comes to photography, technology and its limits shouldn't hinder the experience. So we're also giving our Flickr users one terabyte of space — for free. That’s enough for a lifetime of photos — more than 500,000 original, full-resolution, pixel-perfect, brilliant photos. Flickr users will never have to worry about running out of space.

 

Flickr’s stunning new desktop design puts photos at the heart of the experience. Built around a new photostream that gives you a vivid and endlessly scrolling gallery, it’s easy to see what your friends are posting and what they’re saying about your photos. And because Flickr has always been about exploring photographs from users around the world, we’ve also created a new slideshow that displays the most spectacular Flickr photos in gorgeous full-screen.

 

With smartphones in our pockets at all times, we’re all photographers on a daily basis. That’s why we’re also excited to launch new version of the Flickr app for Android phones and tablets. Similar to the iPhone app we launched in December, the new Flickr for Android maintains your photos’ original quality, so every image you take, edit, share, or view on your phone or tablet looks spectacular.

 

Check out the new Flickr starting today, and you can download the Android app in the Google Play store, available in 10 languages worldwide. We hope you’ll agree that we have made huge strides to make Flickr awesome again, and we want to know what you think and how to further improve!

 

In short, Flickr's done away with nearly all of the white space on Flickr, across every page you visit. Other new features include iPhoto-style slideshows (complete with music), full-bleed photos with significantly-reduced UI elements, and extensive sharing options — you can push photos out to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or Pinterest. It's a massive redesign, and it came together pretty fast — Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said that the company talked about this project in March and "rallied as a full company" to get the project done in this quarter.

 

However, the big news is the free space — "we want all of your images," said Cahan. He said it was 70 times bigger than what other sites offer, and said it could store 537,731 photos in "full quality." Yahoo directly mentioned the 15GB of storage space "other" companies offer, and it was a pretty direct shot at Google — a company that has made no secret recently about making photos a key part of its services.

 

Yahoo also announced a new Android Flickr app, which matches the capabilities of the recently-updated iOS app. "Upload once, send to any device, any screen, any friend, any follower, on any service, and make it absolutely beautiful," said Cahan. Along with this new service, Flickr is revamping its Flickr Pro service. Previously, free Flickr users could only display 200 photos at a time, while paid users had unlimited storage and display capabilities as well as analytical data about your photos. However, Yahoo introduced a few new paid options — for $49.99 a year, all ads on the site will be removed, and you'll get access to the standard set of Flickr analytics. For $499.99, you can double your storage space to 2TB. All in all, it looks like a long overdue and hugely-needed update — but now Flickr has an arsenal of new tools to take on sites like Facebook and Google.

 

http://i.imgur.com/2fP2mCp.jpg http://i.imgur.com/kh25Y7P.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/H7wdRqT.png

 

Free-Accounts

• 1 Terabyte of photo and video storage
  
• Upload photos of up to 200MB per photo
  
• Upload 1080p HD videos of up to 1GB each
  
• Video playback of up to 3 minutes each
  
• Upload and download in full original quality
  

Ad-Free Accounts (older pro-accounts are gone!)

• £32.78 / $49.99 per year
  
• All the benefits of a free account
  
• No ads in your browsing experience
  

Doublr-Plan (extra 1TB space)

• £327.89 / $499.99 per year
  
• 2 Terabytes of photo and video space
  
• You get all the benefits of the free account
  

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/83w0rVn.png

http://i.imgur.com/lIHtBdT.png

http://i.imgur.com/37w2L7g.png

http://i.imgur.com/SbUAwC1.png

Edited May 21, 2013 by Arthur

[Jordyboy]

Good to see that Yahoo has finally updated Flickr at last! although some of the pro users might be rather angry that the web version is too similar to the mobile version that was released. I myself however, will be interested to try this new update out and see what it's like compared to the old version.

[mats]

Do Yahoo / flickr own the rights to your 1Tb of photos though? It's a deal-breaker for me.

[LosOjos]

Do Yahoo / flickr own the rights to your 1Tb of photos though? It's a deal-breaker for me.

 

Not unless they've changed their terms.

 

This is great for non-paying customers, but a kick in the teeth for paying. There was no limit on space for paying customers before, nor was there a limit on upload size. It's also more expensive now. Glad I opted to cancel my "pro" account, I'll live with the ads or completely move to 500px

[pete]

I guess they really don't want people to buy extra space.

[LosOjos]

I guess they really don't want people to buy extra space.

 

That's my guess too! I've paid the pro fee for 2 years just to make sure none of my shots are hidden (previously, only your most recent 200 shots would be visible on a free account). Now they've taken that restriction away and simultaneously added the same space restriction to paid accounts (apart from the ridiculously priced "doublr" account) - cancelling my subscription couldn't have been easier.

 

Also, this "fresh new look" is what 500px has been for ages, except 500px don't put ads on free accounts.

[Arthur]

and simultaneously added the same space restriction to paid accounts (apart from the ridiculously priced "doublr" account)

You have more than 1TB's of photos?

[LosOjos]

You have more than 1TB's of photos?

 

No not yet, I'm up to about 300GB, I dare say some of my flickr friends will be close to the 1TB mark (although as only JPG's are stored, probably not)

 

My point was that there was no restriction on pro accounts before, now the only benefit to paying is the stats, which are laughable anyway, and the ads being removed, which aren't that bad anyway (although again, 500px has no ads, why does flickr need them?)

 

It just seems a strange angle to play, as I know there is a not insignificant percentage of my flickr contacts who are now talking of switching to free accounts as the only thing that kept them paying was the 200 photo limit on free accounts previously. I think Yahoo stand to lose a lot of revenue by doing this.

[CHR1S]

I have literally just renewed my pro account. If I switch to free do I get a refund? Their FAQ is not very helpful.

[LosOjos]

I have literally just renewed my pro account. If I switch to free do I get a refund? Their FAQ is not very helpful.

 

Yeah, if you hover over your buddy icon (top right) there should be an option to downgrade to free, then they'll refund you.

 

I actually pulled a fast one - I had cancelled my future subscription already which would have meant I kept "pro" until it ran out but by doing this I'll now get a refund

[CHR1S]

Downgraded, I only used it as a backup location and to share with family. Saved me some ££

[jinnantonnixx]

Excellent. I approve of this development.

[dhicks]

Doublr-Plan (extra 1TB space) £327.89 / $499.99 per year

 

2TB of space for under £30 a month? That's comparable with Amazon Glacier, and with rather better photo-related features. Can you open institutional accounts for schools and similar, does anyone know? I'd check but their website seems to be down right at the moment...

[Arthur]

2TB of space for under £30 a month? That's comparable with Amazon Glacier, and with rather better photo-related features.

Exactly! I don't know what people are complaining about. The same amount of storage from Google would cost ~£79.09 ($99.99) per month. There also isn't anything stopping you from opening a second Flickr account for free if you need more than 1TB.

 

Btw, you might be interested in Filr.

[LosOjos]

2TB of space for under £30 a month? That's comparable with Amazon Glacier, and with rather better photo-related features. Can you open institutional accounts for schools and similar, does anyone know? I'd check but their website seems to be down right at the moment...

 

Exactly! I don't know what people are complaining about. The same amount of storage from Google would cost ~£79.09 ($99.99) per month. There also isn't anything stopping you from opening a second Flickr account for free if you need more than 1TB.

 

Btw, you might be interested in Filr.

 

The difference is, you can only upload JPG's, which makes the whole thing pretty useless as a backup service

[HarryMonkey]

The difference is, you can only upload JPG's, which makes the whole thing pretty useless as a backup service

 

But it was never meant to be a backup service.

[pete]

Exactly! I don't know what people are complaining about. The same amount of storage from Google would cost ~£79.09 ($99.99) per month. There also isn't anything stopping you from opening a second Flickr account for free if you need more than 1TB.

 

Btw, you might be interested in Filr.

 

Because the cost jumps significantly if you have > 1TB of photos vs paying the old fee and using whatever you like. It turns a "hey, why don't I pay <£30/yr for pro Flickr access into" "ok, that's more than double my Technet sub".

[LosOjos]

But it was never meant to be a backup service.

 

I know, that was my point, @Arthur and @dhicks seemed to be suggesting it was a very well priced backup service, my point is, it isn't a backup service! Unless of course you only want to backup JPG versions of your photos, 1080p copies of your movies in 1GB chunks and nothing else!

[Valentine]

Because the cost jumps significantly if you have > 1TB of photos vs paying the old fee and using whatever you like. It turns a "hey, why don't I pay <£30/yr for pro Flickr access into" "ok, that's more than double my Technet sub".

 

Anyone that has a current Pro subscription can just carry on using that, so no change for current customers unless they want it.

[Arthur]

I know, that was my point, @Arthur and @dhicks seemed to be suggesting it was a very well priced backup service

Where did I say it was a backup service? It obviously isn't.

[dhicks]

The difference is, you can only upload JPG's, which makes the whole thing pretty useless as a backup service

 

Drat - many thanks, I didn't realise that. You're right, that's not going to be much good as a general backup / store place for a school's photos. Can you control the quality settings on the JPEG compression used, does anyone know? I wonder if that's how they're offering so much storage space for free - they compress your images in a way which suits them and their storage backend.

[Arthur]

that's not going to be much good as a general backup / store place for a school's photos.

Which format(s) are your school photos in? Raw?

 

I wonder if that's how they're offering so much storage space for free

Flickr are counting on most people never using all of the space. As I am sure you are aware, that's how shared web hosting providers like Dreamhost work too. They know that 80-90% of their customers use such a tiny amount of space they can get away with offering unlimited storage and bandwidth for $8.95 per month.

 

Can you control the quality settings on the JPEG compression used

No (you would adjust the quality before you upload the photos).

 

The new interface and new pricing should make Flickr a lot more competitive. On top of that, Yahoo has promised an advertising campaign to promote the site and win new users. Flickr is now getting the love it has long needed.

 

For free users this is clearly massive upgrade. In fact, it's an astonishing new pricing model. You have to hate ads an awful lot to pay $50 a year just to remove them. That's twice as much as Pro cost, but without any of the extra features that Pro offered (removal of limits, detailed stats). And if 1TB really isn't enough—it's hard to imagine that Flickr has many users for whom it isn't—the next storage option isn't cheap and unlimited, as it is in Pro.

 

All in all, it seems that the new Flickr is designed to do one thing in particular: discourage people from buying any of the upgrade options so that they keep viewing ads instead. Subscriptions are no longer the point. Yes, there's a token effort to continue subscriptions, but $500 a year for an extra terabyte is never going to be a big seller.

 

The new pricing will make it a lot more viable for snap-happy casual users, which must surely be the point, but Facebook has become a dominant monster in this space. Flickr has its advantages—for example, it lets you upload full-size images with no resizing or recompression, and it has a clearer position regarding photo licensing. While these are important to photography enthusiasts, Yahoo's real job will be to make them appeal to the Facebook generation. The new site and pricing are a start, but there's much more work to do if Yahoo wants to make Flickr the photo destination it once was. (Source)

Edited May 23, 2013 by Arthur

[LosOjos]

Where did I say it was a backup service? It obviously isn't.

 

I was referring to this exchange:

 

2TB of space for under £30 a month? That's comparable with Amazon Glacier, and with rather better photo-related features. Can you open institutional accounts for schools and similar, does anyone know? I'd check but their website seems to be down right at the moment...

 

Exactly! I don't know what people are complaining about. The same amount of storage from Google would cost ~£79.09 ($99.99) per month. There also isn't anything stopping you from opening a second Flickr account for free if you need more than 1TB.

 

Btw, you might be interested in Filr.

 

Just wanted to clear up any confusion about exactly what can be backed up. Yeah, £30 pm for 2TB space is cheap, but you don't have the freedom to use that space for anything you want like you do with a real cloud storage service

 

[bTW, I'm not being an arse, genuinely! Emoticons have gotten to the point of being almost sarcastic...]

[Arthur]

I was referring to this exchange

I think you're getting confused. The storage I was referring to was the new unified offering from Google for photos, documents and e-mail. Once you have used up your 15GB you have to buy more (if your photos are more than 2048 pixels wide) and it's more expensive than Flickr.

 

Google is clearly leveraging its massive cloud capabilities to try to make Google+ the best home for photos online — and attract users to a social network that's struggled to carve out its own niche in a world of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Most of the changes are focused on making uploading and sharing photos — a very tedious task — less painful. The company has already introduced photo-friendly features like unlimited uploads for photos under 2048-pixels wide, a fullscreen picture viewer, and 15GB of free space for photos that break that limit, and with all of the additions today it looks like the company has put together a very compelling package. (Source)

 

See also: Can fancy photos and lavish linking help Google+ take off?

 

The storage @dhicks was talking about is just for backing up/archiving files.

Edited May 23, 2013 by Arthur

[dhicks]

The storage I was referring to was the new unified offering from Google for photos, documents and e-mail. Once you have used up your 15GB you have to buy more (if your photos are more than 2048 pixels wide) and it's more expensive than Flickr.

 

Heck, now I'm confused. I'm looking at storage from the point of view of backing up a school's-worth (5TB upwards) of images, video and assorted associated files - as LosOjos points out, the storage that Flickr now offers isn't really going ot be suitible for that. I was hoping I'd be able to use it as a cloud-backed storage repository, where I have a local server sync stuff to a Flickr account for backup purposes, but I'd need to do that with PNG, TXT and assorted other files, not just JPGs. I'm currently investigating Amazon's storage engine - I'm installing Eucalyptus on my own server to see how GBs of file uploads translates into Amazon's I/O operations. Can you buy a single (5TB) wodge of storage from Google, or does it all have to be assigned to a specific user?