Yahoo’s meddling inspires search for flickr alternative
Like many long time flickr users, I was upset yesterday afternoon when I received a mail from flickr saying my old login is gone (though to be fair, the accounts themselves are untouched) , and I now have to use a Yahoo account to login to the site. I’ve used Yahoo in the past (1998-1999) for e-mail, and I still use their Yahoo Groups services for managing a softball team. The truth is, I dislike their service immensely and would prefer to lead an entirely Yahoo free life.
I’ve had a great time using flickr these last couple of years. They began offering an extremely valuable service to their members when nobody else in the market could compete on features or ease of use. Meanwhile, the climate has changed and this forced account migration has really upset a large chunk of their old school user base. With this in mind, I’m considering switching online photo sharing services….but to what?
The biggest advantage of flickr as I see it, is the established community. I have 8 or 10 contacts on my account, all of which are people I know in the real world, and I’ve never even attempted to search for others. It’s been so easy to share photos with friends and family because of this, and I worry if I’ll be as successful at this with a lesser known alternative. I hate having to explain how to access a new site or service to someone, or worse yet, ask them to sign up for an account just to view something I’ve posted.
Here are the services that I’ll be evaluating in the coming weeks:
- flickr (I know it well, and except for the Yahoo meddling, love it)
- 23
- fotki
- zoomr (this one seems to have the largest and most supportive user base of the flickr alternatives)
- smugmug
I may very well decide that after all this to just suck it up, the Yahoo login isn’t as painful as I thought it would be, or that the other services just don’t offer what I need in a way that I’m comfortable with. I will certainly be paying for at least one of these services in the coming months to support my photo addiction hobby, I just don’t know which.
Of course, I welcome any suggestions based on your experiences with these or other services.
Technorati Tags: flickr, photo sharing
