Hindsight
Joined: 02 Feb 2009
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 Posted: Sun Jan 30, 2011 11:12 pm Post subject: Why Flickr.com is going down the toilet: |
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Here are some exciting pictures taken by Mathew Rothenberg, the person Yahoo! put in charge of Flickr.com after Yahoo! bought it:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mroth/5311304137/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mroth/5294529932/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mroth/5256410969/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mroth/
I was a regular Flickr.com poster and viewer for many years, going back before Yahoo! took over. Then they did the redesign. I don't know about the rest of you, but I find it buggy, I sometimes have problems with over-compression, and people who are not regular users often are confused about how to post and view pictures.
I switched to photobucket.com It's not free from bugs, either, but I am getting thousands of views of my pictures by strangers. It is much, much easier for viewers to figure out how to view the full-sized version of the image. And I can post thousands of pictures for free, versus 200 on flickr.
You would think Yahoo! would have put a person with a passion for photography in charge of Flickr.com, someone who had been taking pictures for years, not just since getting his new job. But there is no indication of such an interest in Mr. Rothenberg's self-description:
| Quote: |
| I am a social technologist experienced in understanding how real people and communities interact with technology, and a product strategist experienced in leading cross-functional teams in producing great software. My goal is to build social software which will ultimately make the world a more interesting place. |
http://mroth.info/
Nice buzz words, but Yahoo!s redesign didn't seem to move flickr.com in that direction. It just made it more confusing to use. "Real people"? Something tells me he didn't actually test the redesign with "real people."
Here is an interview with Mr. Rothenberg:
| Quote: |
At Flickr, Fending Off Rumors and Facebook
By VERNE G. KOPYTOFF
SAN FRANCISCO � Speculation in technology circles that Yahoo might close or sell Flickr, its photo-sharing service, prompted an emphatic denial this month.
�Is Yahoo committed to Flickr?� Blake Irving, Yahoo�s product chief, wrote in a message on Twitter. �Hell yes we are!�
The confusion over Flickr�s future was perhaps understandable. Yahoo had just recently disclosed plans to shut down or otherwise dispose of several other Web products, including the bookmarking service Delicious, and some users feared Flickr would be next. |
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/31/technology/31flickr.html?hpw
This is perhaps the most telling observation:
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Other than the recent support on Twitter, Yahoo�s top executives have barely mentioned Flickr publicly for some time. Few top executives actually have a public Flickr account. |
Why is it that large corporations think they can put people (MBAs? accountants?) in charge of running companies that don't understand, love or even use their own products? If they did, they would see that the redesign at flickr.com has problems.
When I began using the internet in 1997, Yahoo! was my favorite site, by far. But it seems in recent years the crew at Yahoo! have had a knack for losing sight of why people used their sites in the first place, and of messing up everything they touch. Even their email is a pain.
I really wonder if Mr. Rothenberg understands flickr's original users. It could easily have been the dominant photo website, but I think they blew it.
Flickr is about taking pictures and sharing pictures. If Yahoo! doesn't get it, they should sell it to someone who does.
Flickr.com still has some good points. Photobucket.com could be better. Anyone use some other, better site to post photos? |
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