Yahoo's Flickr has been suffering for awhile now. So much that many people have stopped using the photo service altogether. Yahoo has finally revamped Flickr, and the changes are, for the most part, for the better. If you use Flickr, here's what you can expect to find.
Elimination of Unnecessary Objects
The old Flickr was crawling with white space, links, and plenty of things that just weren't useful. The new Flickr tightens up by eliminating white space, getting rid of useless links, and creating a site design that just plain flows. Photographs are presented in a clean manner, and friend news streams are smooth and uninterrupted.
At the top of the Flickr screen is a simple menu bar, and a side bar lists all of the groups that you are part of in addition to some other suggestions and recommendations. When you add people to your photo stream, you will now see large high-resolution images instead of small thumbnails, and this makes a world of difference. It also helps if you limit your photo stream to users that really take amazing pictures.
Social Integration
Flickr users have wanted some kind of social network integration for a long time now. Yahoo finally added that integration. You can now connect with Tumblr, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter simply. Another big change has happened as well: users now have 1TB of storage space to use for free -- that's a huge deal. But, don't worry, Yahoo has kept some of your old favourites too.
Some Old Tools Exist Too
Not only are all photographs automatically set against a black background (and all comments and tags are pushed below each photo), but the site still has some of its older tools too -- tools that Flickr fans still love. You'll still find the mapping features and batch editing tool. Yahoo has really revamped Flickr for the better, it seems, without wiping the site completely.
Building On Existing Features
Instead of focusing on new features, Yahoo has spent (obviously) the majority of time on Flickr's interface. Better photographs, more storage space, and a cleaner layout are what really makes the new Flickr stand out. Flickr also comes with a free iOS and Android app, for those who like to shoot photos from a phone. Using the new Flickr still comes with a bit of a learning curve so it might not be for everyone, but Flickr has definitely been improved.
One Slight Criticism
The one thing that Flickr users aren't happy about is the new bandwidth restriction. Should you go over 300 MB of bandwidth per month, a nice pop up will appear on your screen letting you know that you've reached your limit. The pop up will also let you know that you can purchase additional space for $24.95 per year (deleting photos won't help you with that space problem, by the way).
The space limit does reset at the beginning of each month, but you may want to consider forking over that $25 per year if you want to go over 300 MB without a fuss. Otherwise, the new Flickr is all positive all the way.