I love Flickr !

Every once in a while a web application is released that is radically better than any existing competition. A well known example is Gmail. A slightly lesser known one is Flickr, which I want to write about in this post.

Flickr is web based photo-hosting service, with some really neat features. You can get a free account, as well as a pro-account (25USD per year). The main limitation of the free account is that it is only possible to upload up to 20MB of pictures per month, which is still ok if you aren't taking that many pictures. With pro-account, you can upload as many pictures as you want and, of course, there are some additional not-so-essential perks.

Here is a short overview of some features I love most:
  • RSS feed for person's pictures. Basically you can subscribe to person's picture stream, and receive notifications when new pictures are uploaded.
  • You can tag your pictures with multiple keywords. You then have the option of only viewing those pictures that have keywords you are interested in. For example here are all my pictures that are tagged with keyword 'kenya': Kenya Pictures.
  • You choose who you want to share your pictures with. For instance if you only want to share it with family members, only your family will be able to view them.
  • You can attach descriptions to certain areas of the picture. Then, when you move the mouse over a certain area of a picture, a pop-up is displayed describing that area. Example.
Overall, Flickr is a really impressive photo-hosting solution. Lets hope there is more to come !

Flickr was originally based in Canada, but was recently acquired by Yahoo. It is still unclear what implications this will have on the Flickr service; however, I believe that it's for the best. Yahoo has been doing some great things lately, and I think that Flickr will only improve in Yahoo's hands.

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