Give Flickr the flick or celebrate its genius?
Posted: May 31, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: flickr, instagram, Pics, pictures 10 Comments »
The pic above turned up in an online magazine this week and when I contacted them to point out its “non commerical” licence on Flickr they kindly agreed to pay for its use.
It’s a nice little bonus – especially as my Flickr account is up for renewal and we’re currently watching the pennies. But, I also found myself questioning this yearly payment.
Firstly I don’t think it’s bad value. Far from it.
But what bugs me is this – everytime I upload a picture I am further boosting their ability to hold me to ransom. Yes the pictures don’t disappear but the search facility does – beyond the last 200 images. That makes finding, for example, my wedding pictures near impossible.
Then again, when I start to look around for other options, for all the recent Flickr bashing, I can’t find anything out there that comes close. Often what appears to be free suddenly gets very expensive when we reach the number of pics we’re talking about. Also where are the HTML generating options or the facility that lets you download in different sizes?
A lot has been made of Flickr lagging behind in all things social. Well I already deleted my Instagram account, I’m up to here with social – what I want is a good, reliable place to store pics. I don’t want all singing and dancing – I want silent and sat down. Compared to everything else Flickr does have a certain quiet genius.
With all that in mind I’m not convinced anything out there is better than Flickr. But then again, the more I stick with them, the more leverage they have to continue to make me pay.
Pic below snapped on my phone returning last Saturday from over the river.
Nice shot. Cong Caphe? Re. Flickr – http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/05/how-yahoo-killed-flickr-and-lost-the-internet/
Yes, a couple of years back, used to work in that part of town but haven’t been back in a year or so. Saw that Gizmodo article – not sure it’s entirely fair. Like the article says I don’t want Flickr to be Instagram. I’ve a hunch that Flickr might still be there when we’re all tired of Instagram.
As I recall, you use a MacBook. Why not use iPhoto and store all your photos on your laptop and/or external hard drive? I want control and ability to edit and sort to albums, so iPhoto works well for me.
– Mel
I tend to mix things up, so I have a Macbook, an Android phone and I use Picasa for Mac to manage my pics on the computer. That said, really all I use it for is to edit and then I upload the best of the shots to Flickr. Carrying pics on a hard drive would feel even more dangerous than trusting in the cloud (and it’s keepers). Generally, I try to keep as much of my info hosted elsewhere as possible.
I haven’t read the full article, but will get to it eventually. I’m not across-the-board on all the alternative platforms, so I am still using Flickr too. Still lovin’ your shot mate.
Thanks. Funny it’s a shot that I didn’t really look at twice at the time but I grown to like it more and more. I took a few pics of Cong Caphe that day and they’ve been used in a coupe of things.
I keep thinking about moving further into the Google cloud and using Picasa online (or whatever it’s been labelled as). Of course, this involves moving all my Flickr images over… and possibly also recreating all the links I have on my blog posts. That’s the big stopper for me.
I think Picasa works out cheaper, but I’ve still got a year or so to go on my Flickr account so I’m in no rush.
Not sure Picasa works out cheaper and it doesn’t appear to give you the HTML option to embed pictures – also it’s just so clunky now. I love much of what Google does (Gmail, Docs etc) but too much of their work feels like it’s just been chucked out there and they’ll continue to bang it with a hammer if anything goes wrong (g+, Picasa etc). Looks like Flickr for the foreseeable.
Glad to hear you say that as it saves me checking it out further. I’d really only considered Picasa’s integration into other apps. I thought it looked cheaper as well but I guess that comes down to the number of photos etc. The HTML thing doesn’t bother me.
My main gripe with Flickr is the interface, especially the collections and sets. Navigation needs an overhaul as well.
When I had a look at other alternatives I was left thinking that yes Flickr navigation wasn’t great but it was still better than everything else.