Flickr Adds (Short) Video
Flickr fanatics can now upload and share video alongside their photos, but those clips will have to be short. The long-awaited Flickr video feature isn’t intended to be a YouTube (or even a Yahoo Video) killer, instead, Flickr is trying to make its video offering an extension of its photo experience with an emphasis on short clips taken with digital still cameras.
Only Flickr pro members can upload video (Pro membership costs $25 a year), but any public video is viewable by anyone. Videos are limited to 90 seconds in length and 150MB maximum file size. Which doesn’t sound like much, but for the type of service Flickr wants to offer, should be plenty.
The service also lets you upload directly from your digital camera, and treats videos the same way as it does photos, letting you tag, geotag and search.
Of course, this is the third video-related product Yahoo has released in as many months. It re-launched Yahoo Video in February, launched Yahoo Live in March, and now has Flickr video. And don’t even get me started if it gets bought by Microsoft with all of its own video endeavours.
It’s easy to say that the company’s chaotic, siloed approach to web video is emblematic of why the company is a hostile takeover target. But Flickr has always seemed like the smart kid in a dumb family. It stays on mission, has a clean interface and a loyal fan base. This move is a natural extension for the service.
Limiting the uploads to members and placing a cap on the time limit will help with bandwidth costs while reducing the amount of dreck users have to sift through.
Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to the feed
Sponsor Gallery
Recent
GigaOM Network
- Ultracapacitor Maker Graphene Energy Eyes New Funding, Tech Milestone [Earth2Tech]
- News Corp: No Plans To Build a Kindle Competitor [GigaOM]
- Canadian Content Producers Take a Stand for Net Neutrality [NewTeeVee]
- HP Mini 110 Netbook Gains $30 HD Display Option [jkOnTheRun]
- App Review: Rolando 2 — Roll On the Second Coming [TheAppleBlog]
- Tools and Techniques for Better Lead Generation [WebWorkerDaily]
- Control Computer Apps From Across the Room With AcceleGlove [OStatic]
© 2009 The GigaOM Network. Marketing consulting by ACS.
// Limiting the uploads to members and placing a cap on the time limit will help with bandwidth costs //
It sounds like Flickr Video is what microblogging is to Twitter. Short and tweet.
My two cents. YMMV.
T. Barnes on April 8th, 2008 at 11:20 pm - Permalink
[...] out clubbing seals given the negative reaction from the photo sharing community to the site’s new video feature. Members are in full-on digital revolt with more than 30,000 members joining anti-video groups, and [...]
Flickr Users Look Down on YouTube « NewTeeVee on April 11th, 2008 at 8:20 am - Permalink
[...] Founders Leave Yahoo; move comes just months after the photo site added video. (The Wall Street [...]
Vid-Biz: Kaltura, Talpa, TV Ads « NewTeeVee on June 18th, 2008 at 11:11 am - Permalink
[...] augmenting its video capabilities, Flickr still isn’t a video sharing site. The company launched the service a little under a year ago with a 90-second cap on video uploads, considering the clips “long [...]
Flickr Opens Up, Adds HD « NewTeeVee on March 2nd, 2009 at 3:30 pm - Permalink
[...] Its original content initiatives have been stop-and-go. Flickr held off on adding video until only a year ago, and restricts video uploads to the point they can only be an afterthought to photos. Another [...]
Yahoo Video Gets “Streamlined” on May 4th, 2009 at 5:09 pm - Permalink
[...] not the only photo site to make moving pictures an afterthought. Flickr offered video much later than expected as well and has kept video at the margins, only recently expanding it to unpaid [...]
Motionbox Powers Shutterfly Video on June 12th, 2009 at 1:56 pm - Permalink