The Crier

Point, Shoot, Upload: The Glory of Flickr.com

The internet begat the blog begat the photo publisher begat Flickr. Here’s why the site is simply one of the best out there

Phil Dokas · Tech · Mar 08, 2007

Nothing showcases the rise of the internet quite like the blog. In the late ‘90s, nearly every article about the internet mentioned the “personal publishing revolution” and Blogger, the first big publishing system behind it.

Eventually, the bubble burst. But despite the digital corporate apocalypse, blogs survived. Not only that, they thrived. Today, blogging is stronger than ever with any number of blogging suites available.

The unsung hero of this new media is photo publishing. True, Webshots.com and Photobucket.com have been around for years, but using them is hardly enjoyable. In the last few years, though newcomers have arrived bringing with them the best of new technology. The crown jewel of these is Flickr.

Flickr launched in 2004 primarily as a chat service that allowed photo sharing (here’s a photo from the early days). As the site grew, it began to focus more on photography and less on real-time discussion. This inspired Flickr’s current philosophy: Photos first, talk second. Now all that’s left of the old chatting abilities are a few scattered pictures.

Even the most casual browser can find something interesting on Flickr.

Today’s Flickr is a highly interactive site. It allows you to comment in both standard format and directly on photos (here’s an example). You can also mark photos as favorites, sort them into sets, send them to groups, and show them off on an interactive map.

What’s more, Flickr goes beyond the “click here to go edit your content” method that has become all too common. When editing your photos you often need only click on the text you wish to edit, free of bothersome page reloads. The brilliance of this is the speed and simplicity of the action. It makes you wonder when the rest of the web will catch up.

Flickr dives deeper than most sites, encouraging you to explore photography. One of their most amazing feats has been patenting a technology they call “interestingness” — a ranking of how many users are viewing, commenting on, and marking photos as favorites.

The results are stunning. If you want to hone in, you can search or browse by tags and even order them by interestingness (try ladybugs).

Even the most casual browser can find something interesting here. A map of the world shows off the most recent photos worldwide, and an interactive calendar chronicles the best photos of the day. Then again there’s the cut and dry list of the most popular tags, which conveniently gives a heads-up on the most recent activity across the Flickr universe.

Where Flickr truly shines is in the community it creates. Basic Flickr accounts are free and powerful, ensuring that anyone can use them.

For the burgeoning photographer, they just released a very handy page about all the cameras available, which shows models, prices, and even photos taken by each camera (check out my trusty Canon PowerShot A520 for instance).

But where Flickr truly shines is in the community it creates. Basic Flickr accounts are free and powerful, ensuring that anyone can use it, and some of the world’s best amateur photographers use the site to showcase their work. Now that’s democracy.

Take a look at just Ann Arbor for moment. The place to go is the Ann Arbor group. Besides a pool of nearly 5000 great shots of town, you’ll find a community versed not just in Ann Arbor, but photography in general. Anything you’d care to ask a local you can ask on the discussion page. Many of the members gather at places like Leopold Brother’s and Corner Brewery in Ypsi to kick back and talk town, photography and everything in between.

But all of this merely scratches the surface. Flickr is great because it nailed the technology without losing sight of what makes a truly excellent site: outstanding content and a powerful interface. If you haven’t taken a dive into Flickr, you might start out by joining the Crier group. Any photos of Ann Arbor you post here will be randomly displayed on our front page, and might even be included in one of our photo essays down the road.