Today Yahoo laid off a bunch of its workforce, with rumors pegging the number in the 600-700 range. Anecdotally we know that the Flickr group was impacted with Thomas Hawk noting a few tweets.
Flickr is dying.
Flickr made it easy to share photos online but the service hasn’t really innovated anything in the last few years. Facebook is now the king of social photo sharing while other services such as SmugMug and Photoshelter are providing premium services for serious amateurs and pros who want their photos to look good and be accessible to buyers of prints and licenses.
With a parent company that’s struggling to stay relevant, it appears that any new innovation or development at Flickr has stagnated. Their latest feature releases have been minor evolutions to try to keep up with newer, better services.
My postings to Flickr slowed down and then stopped. My photos now live on my SmugMug gallery, Facebook, or a few other smaller hosted locations. I see similar patterns from other pros and serious hobbyists.
Flickr is to photo sharing what Yahoo Mail is to email. There was a time when it was current and relevant but the cool kids have moved on.
