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from the mailbag
Flickr Founder Calls Nuked User 'A Dick'
An update on Shepherd Johnson, who lost 1,200 Flickr images over comments on White House photos: Yahoo said the activist's pictures are gone forever, offered him $25 and blocked his messages. And Flickr's founder called him "a dick." More » -
disasters
Yahoo Nukes Man's Photos Over Obama Comments
Flickr user Shepherd Johnson was browsing the official White House photostream one night when he decided to post a politically-charged comment. Then another, then another. Soon, without warning, Yahoo's photo-sharing service deleted his account, complete with 1,200 pictures.
More » -
exits
Google's Still Got a Crush on Flickr, How Cute!
Yahoo has started its latest round of layoffs, which hit its pixel-cute photo-sharing site Flickr, a formerly sacrosanct fiefdom. We hear Google has its eyes on some of the Flickr employees Yahoo let slip. More » -
breakups
Why Flickr's Caterina Fake Is Launching Hunch on Her Own
Caterina Fake, who cofounded Flickr with husband Stewart Butterfield in 2004, has a new startup, Hunch, which may be launching soon. But where's the other half of the famous Web 2.0 couple? More » -
yahoo
Flickr layoffs could spell a photo finish
Every bit of Yahoo got the slash this week. Why should Flickr, the photo-sharing startup it bought in 2005, be any different? -
timeline
An instant history of Yahoo
With 1,500 employees gone today, Yahoo has surely hit bottom. The company's third act begins today — either an amazing rebirth, a disappearance into Microsoft, or a slow grind into irrelevance. How did those become its options? -
cubicle culture
Flickr's community standards include workplace nudity
Yahoo's photo-sharing site is carefully policed by Heather Champ, the site's longtime community manager, Chris Colin reports in the San Francisco Chronicle. But who shall watch the watchmen? Colin reports an outrageous incident that would have been marked adults-only had it been photographed and posted on Flickr. More » -
flickr
Is Getty Images Buying Flickr?
We heard a wild rumor that Getty Images agreed to buy photo-sharing website Flickr from Yahoo. At first blush the gossip sounds crazy. Widely-used Flickr is a crown Web 2.0 jewel for Yahoo, which dissolved its own photo site after acquiring the company, and Getty can already license Flickr photos through a partnership announced in July. But upon further reflection there's a logic to the alleged deal. More » -
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spy photos
Yahoo Hack Day restores API access between ex-lovers Cal Henderson and Leah Culver
For quippy superstar engineer Cal Henderson, the fellow who has kept Flickr from crashing all these years, attendance at Yahoo's Hack Day developer event was all but mandatory, since he works there. But what attracted Pownce cofounder Leah Culver, Henderson's ex-girlfriend? A Valleywag tipster's spy camera caught the two of them hard at work, laptops side by side. All business, clearly — until it came time for the awkward parting hug, and perhaps more. "Looked like they were kissing in the pic with him holding her, but can't say it looked very enthusiastic or romantic," our tipster analyzes. Full photos below, so you, too, can interpret the body language in the comments. More » -
we read twitter so you don't have to
Ariel Waldman is totes single
Our apologies to Ms. Ariel Waldman — she is not dating Cal Henderson: "I need dates — stop ruining my game, yo," she Twitters. Good, because that would make for some awkward meetings at Pownce, where she spends time as a community manager working with cofounder Leah Culver, a former Henderson paramour. This also means that polytalented Flickr code jock Cal Henderson is probably available. Probably. "How did Valleywag miss the girl I was actually there with?" he later asked us. -
design
"New Flickr" controversy to replace "New Facebook" controversy
Like it or not, we're stuck with Mark Zuckerberg's ego-driven redesign of Facebook, which becomes mandatory for all users today. What to complain about now? Why, Flickr! The Yahoo-owned photo-sharing site has introduced a new look which emphasizes its social features. Like Facebook's redesign, it's currently optional, but will be forced on all users in a few weeks. (Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/News.com) -
social networks
What does online gossip profit us?
In an upcoming New York Times magazine, already teased online, Wired contributor Clive Thompson argues that Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr are not alienating us from one another as human beings, as social-network fearmongers claim. We're just becoming more digitally intimate, present in the lives of our 500 "friends," one update at a time. “Sometimes I think this stuff is just crazy, and everybody has got to get a life and stop obsessing over everyone’s trivia and gossiping,” a 20something Facebook user Thompson interviewed said. We know how well that goes. More » -
hurricane gustav
Funniest Flickr photo from New Orleans
Click for full size. I took the liberty of sharpening it a bit in Photoshop Elements. (Photo by Maitri) -
startups
What's Caterina Fake's Hunch?
After Yahoo bought Flickr from the wife-and-husband team of Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield in 2005, then-executive Jeff Weiner charged Fake with "building the next Flickr at Yahoo." It never happened — though one result of those instructions, the ill-managed Brickhouse incubator, did provide some entertainment along the way. Fake is now joining a New York-based startup called Hunch. "It is a consumer Internet application, it will have a lot of user participation, and it is more than a little fun," she writes. It is the next Flickr, in other words, or so she hopes. But not at Yahoo. Jeff, shouldn't you be asking for half of Yahoo's money back? -
Mancrush
Downright adorable Flickr founder wishes Microsoft had bought Yahoo
In an interview with ZDNet, Flickr cofounder Stewart Butterfield says that he wished Microsoft's bid for Yahoo had gone through — and that the now-scuppered deal wasn't the reason he resigned from Yahoo earlier this month. "Once the ball was rolling I would have rather seen the acquisition happen, he said. "I think a lot of damage was done to Yahoo." The admission will likely shock the Yahoo-owned photo-sharing site's faithful core of hardcore fans, who created satirical Microsoft Flickr logos in response to the software giant's bid. Butterfield also implies that Flickr would have been better off under Google's ownership, since that company was more willing to spend on speculative ventures. It's not a purely hypothetical question: Google was very interested in buying Flickr, but the search engine hesitated, and Yahoo ended up buying Flickr instead. I could go on analyzing Butterfield's comments, but I've become too distracted by a Flickr search of photos which demonstrate how fricking cute he is. The results: More » -
breakups
Flickr's Cal Henderson dumped by Technology Review covergirl Leah Culver
We've been remiss in informing you of this: Cal Henderson, the eminently scalable Flickr engineer, and Leah Culver, the shrill-voiced cofounder of Pownce, San Francisco's favorite way to share MP3 files while evading copyright cops, broke up some time ago. (We hear it wasn't exactly his idea.) But don't feel sorry for Henderson, or Culver. She has no shortage of suitors — including, it seems, Technology Review editor-in-chief Jason Pontin, who was taken enough with Culver to put her on his magazine's latest cover. Pontin's married, but a man can dream, can't he? Sorry, Jason: We now hear Culver's hooked up with a Googler. (Photo of Henderson by magerleagues) -
yahoo
Getty and Flickr partnership took too long
Yahoo's photo-sharing subsidiary, Flickr, announced it has partnered with Getty Images to streamline the process for Getty's photo editors who want to buy images from Flickr users. For the privilege, Getty will pay Flickr a fee. It's a good idea, but one that took to long to come to fruition. Two years ago at a party in New York, Flickr cofounder Stewart Buttefield told me one way the photo-sharing site could finally make money for Yahoo: More » -
startups
When they were babes: Web 2.0's humble paper origins
Aww, you guys, this is so cute. Making actual babies out of Web people didn't go so well, but these larval stage sketches of popular Web 2.0 sites before they spawned? Adorable. Look, Vimeo was a little funny looking even then! Taken as a whole, it kinda makes you want to pinch someone's Moleskine where it counts. Full-on prototyping-porn after the jump. More » -
rumormonger
Will Flickr cofounders make a run for the border, or head for the Big Apple?
Now that Caterina Fake has left Yahoo and Stewart Butterfield has tendered his abstract resignation letter, what will the widely beloved Flickr cofounders do? And where will they go? Brendon Wilson, who worked in the Valley himself before returning to his native Canada, pointed us to an effort by a group of geeks to convince Fake and Butterfield to come back to Vancouver, British Columbia, where Flickr was launched. The welcome wagon even turned out a video slideshow of Flickr photos to remind the couple just how beautiful the city can be. Look, a rainbow! And it may just be working — last night, Butterfield added himself to the Bring Stewart and Caterina Home! group on Facebook. Fake may have other plans, though. More » -
exits
Stewart Butterfield's bizarre resignation letter to Yahoo
Stewart Butterfield, the cantankerous cofounder of Flickr, has, as we've noted, tendered his resignation to Yahoo, as has wife and cofounder Caterina Fake. The two recently celebrated, along with Flickr's other original employees, a "Vestfest" for their take from the $35 million sale of Flickr to Yahoo three years ago; we'd heard as long ago as October that Butterfield was ready to leave. But we couldn't have anticipated the manner of Butterfield's exit. In a long, rambling email to Yahoo executive Brad Garlinghouse, under whose aegis Flickr fell, Butterfield described the company as a tin-smithing concern, but found that there was no place for him as the company left its metallurgical roots. Better this entertaining nonsense than some tired cliche of "bleeding purple," I suppose. I'm also told that this email is classic Butterfield, and that his employees at Flickr would stage dramatic readings of some of his better missives at Flickr's San Francisco headquarters, which will now be run officially by Kakul Srivastava, Flickr's longtime de facto chief. Butterfield's full resignation letter: More » -
stewart butterfield
Flickr founders Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake abandon the good ship Yahoo
When Ludicorp co-founders Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake sold Flickr to Yahoo, they also moved from their Vancouver headquarters to the Bay Area to take up jobs at the Sunnyvale campus of the new parent company. Their biggest innovation since was the birth of their daughter, Sonnet — which took considerably less time than adding video to the photo sharing site. Now Fake and Butterfield have joined the stampede, with Fake having left Yahoo on Friday and Butterfield due to stick around until July 12, reports TechCrunch — confirming rumors we'd heard regarding Butterfield's plans to move on. (Photo by Caterina Fake) -
photoshop
What If Websites Were Realistic?
What if Facebook let you properly express your rage against the tool who just added you to the "Buying and Selling Friends" app? What if Netflix knew you'd skip to the dirty bits? I paid Jay Hathaway a slave's wage to draw up what this would look like. More » -
once you're lucky, twice you're good
F is for Fitzpatrick, and "hookers and blow"
LiveJournal founder Brad Fitzpatrick is a prankster, as evidenced by his Halloween costume last year, when the new Googler dressed up as Facebook to mock his coworkers' fears of the social network. I'm told that in Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good, Sarah Lacy's new book about Web 2.0, there's an anecdote about Fitzpatrick submitting an expense report — successfully! — for "hookers and blow" when he worked at blog software startup Six Apart. That was likely a reference to the early days of LiveJournal, when users made ridiculous accusations that Fitzpatrick was spending money meant for servers and bandwidth on "hookers and blow." We'd love to hear more, but alas, Fitzpatrick only got 8 out of 294 pages, according to the book's index. Here's the page for "D" through "F": More » -
exits
Stewart Butterfield grooms beard for ... investors?
Long before he and Flickr cofounder Caterina Fake spawned daughter Sonnet, Stewart Butterfield had a manly thatch of russet facial hair that screamed "Daddy." He's thus the natural winner of Fortune's first beard-off; other contenders like Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, and Yelp's Russel Simmons might as well not have bothered. There's one curiosity about his win, though: Why would a judge praise Butterfield's beard for being "trimmed nicely, edgy, yet mature, so he doesn't look 18 sitting in front of investors"? We don't think judge John Allan, the owner of a chain of grooming clubs, has any special insight into Butterfield's career plans. But he's nonetheless on target: We've heard Butterfield, who sold Flickr to Yahoo more than three years ago, has left Flickr general manager Kakul Srivastava — his "hero" — in charge of his startup baby, so he can tend to his real one, and is ready to bolt from Yahoo. -
friendfeed
Why Silicon Valley just won't shut up about FriendFeed
"Cathy Brooks is a typically unapologetic Silicon Valley Web addict," writes Brad Stone in the New York Times. "Last week alone, she produced more than 40 pithy updates on the text messaging service Twitter, uploaded two dozen videos to various video sharing sites, posted seven photographs on the Yahoo image service Flickr and one item to the online community calendar Upcoming." Usually, when one identifies a friend as an addict, an intervention is in order. But Stone, who seems to have spent so much time in San Francisco's tech circles that he's gone native, suggests more technology instead: Specifically, FriendFeed, which gathers all of this online activity in one place, making it marginally easier for Brooks's benighted friends to keep up with her online logorrhea. More » -
freemium
How hipster trustafarians will pay Tumblr's bills
If scenesters from Brooklyn to San Francisco's Mission District want to have Tumblr cool-kid bragging rights, they'll have to pay, founder David Karp has decided. Why has Karp finally set his unflinching blue eyes on Tumblr's bottom line? His hosting bills must be starting to pinch. He'll begin peddling paid Tumblr Pro accounts later this year. Flickr, which just added video for its pro members only, charges $25 a year for extra storage, but Karp tell us he hasn't figure out how much to charge his users just yet. What will Tumblr "Pros" get for their money? Karp says he's got "more than 10 features in the queue" including a tool that allows readers to submit content, more customizable themes and special page layouts. Check out screenshots of the new features below, and then wonder with us: Are they enough for ego-tumbling millennials to agree to pay Karp's fee? More » -
developers, developers, developers
Latest to adopt "Tom Sawyer" strategy: Photobucket
Photobucket, the News Corp.-owned photo-sharing site, is introducing an application programming interface, or API, in an effort to catch up with Yahoo's Flickr. One of the benefits, Photobucket CEO Alex Welch implies, will be having independent developers do Photobucket's R&D for it and come up with new ways to line Rupert Murdoch's pocket: "If we see a noncommercial application that's doing something clearly in our commercial terms of service or doing something very creative, it's our responsibility to go out and figure a way to partner." [News.com] -
caption contest
When Joi met Esther
Hyperglobal adventure capitalists Joi Ito and Esther Dyson met by coincidence at London Heathrow's just-opened Terminal 5, and raced to post photos of each other to Flickr. Before Yahoo bought the photo site, Dyson was an investor in Flickr. Suggest a caption in the comments. (Photos by Esther Dyson and Joi Ito) More » -
online video
Flickr video feature sparks user protests
The long-anticipated addition of video to photo sharing site Flickr got a positive review from Michael Arrington, but users aren't necessarily happy — 12,063 people have already signed up to the We Say NO to Videos on Flickr group less than 24 hours after the new feature launched. Whereas only 26 people have joined the Video! Video! Video! group set up by staffers. Australian photographer Steve Hudson is capitalizing on the trend with the domain no-video-on-flickr.com redirecting to a page covered in AdSense ads. Will any of them stop using Flickr? I doubt it. -
nerdfight
Vimeo designer says Flickr ripped off his design
"Flickr knocked off my player design," departed Connected Ventures cofounder and Vimeo designer Zach Klein writes on his blog. "I hope I at least get a free brunch out of this." Not likely. Though a quick look at the stats suggest someone's going to eat Vimeo's lunch. -
social networks
Prepare to be flooded by Flickr friend requests
Photo sharing site and Yahoo subsidiary Flickr released a new friend finder feature yesterday that will search your email contact lists, much like many other social networking sites have done over the past few years. The difference is that rather than giving Flickr your email and password to access your account, you're taken to a page from your email provider, providing an extra layer of security and winning some kudos from the data portability crowd. However, Flickr users about to be deluged by friend requests from anyone they've ever traded emails with probably won't be so amused. In a completely unrelated development, original Ludicorp project Game Neverending is now back online, complete with a fake announcement from Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang. -
caption contest
Leah Culver gives Kyle Shank the cupcake treatment
Former Uncov guy and Persai CEO Kyle Shank, at center, recovers from an unsolicited cupcake smearing by Pownce's Leah Culver. The attack, likely motivated by Uncov accomplice Ted Dziuba's frequent gibes directed at Culver, took place at Flickr's fourth birthday party. Flickr's Cal Henderson, right, is said to have served as Culver's accomplice. Speaking of, can anyone confirm whether Henderson and Culver are dating? The two were inseparable at SXSW. If so, snaps to Culver: We hear Henderson's website is highly scalable. (Photo by magerleagues) -
loser-generated content
Flickr to video users: You're a bunch of amateurs
Almost every digital camera captures both pictures and movies. This reality has seemed lost on Flickr for four years. Cofounder Stewart Butterfield reportedly told attendees at a fourth-birthday party last night that Flickr, now owned by Yahoo, will introduce video uploads next month. At this point, Yahoo might as well launch the service on April 1 — the delay has become that much of a joke. Yahoo Video has already relaunched, with its own movie-upload features. So why bother? More » -
live coverage
True confessions of the world's busiest websites
Do not want fail? Why then, can has win, say the folks behind the curtains at Flickr, Digg, Media Temple, and StumbleUpon. Six of them showed up at a panel organized by Kevin Rose to explain how to make websites that stay online, more or less. Being a not very clever gossip, I just listened in for the quips. Oh, and the drama. Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg almost didn't make it. Check out how his fellow panelists updated the lineup right before he showed up. More » -
online video
Yahoo Video relaunches, and hints at video on Flickr
Yahoo Video has soft-launched a new website, in a move which speaks to both the potential of Yahoo and the company's utter disorganization. It has all the necessaries in the age of YouTube and Hulu: clips created by amateurs and professionals, playlists, and "exclusive" content. The latter, if true, is refreshing: Thanks to syndication deals which allow the endless regurgitation of video from site to site, most of the Hollywood-born clips on the Web are numbingly similar. The site also has a tantalizing promise: Video on Flickr. More » -
yahoo
Why Microsoft would be great for Flickr
Pop quiz: What's the most popular way to store photos in the world? If your answer was Flickr, you're wrong. It's Microsoft Windows, duh. Commentards are cracking jokes about "Microsoft Flickr 2011 Home Premium Edition." Well, let's talk about Flickr. Flickr has a hardcore base of users prone to complain about anything and everything, and the Microsoft deal is no exception. But Flickr's biggest competitor isn't Shutterfly or Smugmug or Snapfish; it's indifference. Most photos lie unseen and unloved on PC hard drives, if the shooter has even bothered to upload them. Think about Flickr being built into the next version of Windows. That would actually be a reason to upgrade. (Photo by dr_lopbot) -
separated at net worth
The Share Bears in the Land Without Portability
Caring is sharing, people, especially when it comes to your personal data. Leading developers from important social-network sites joining a "data-portability" advocacy group doesn't represent history in the making. It's a marketing campaign to make everyone feel sickly sweet, knowing that these websites are so concerned about our information. Like the Care Bears, by signing on to the DataPortability Working Group, top coders like Brad Fitzpatrick, Dave Recordon, and Ben Ling have joined forces to form a group which we can only call by one name. Presenting: The Share Bears! More » -
apple
Apple TV movie rentals delayed two more weeks
Apple announced today that while the MacBook Air has started shipping, the Apple TV 2.0 update, which was promised "in about two weeks," will be available "in another week or two." Apple didn't say what the holdup was, but it could be related to Flickr integration issues (Steve Jobs's Flickr demonstration failed during his keynote), other quality control problems, or, quite possibly, due to last-minute wrangling with the movie studios. More » -
blogging for dollars
OK, we get it: Yahoo blogs are pointless, and even the bloggers hate them
So we dinged Yahoo for not updating 8 of their 26 official blogs in the last month. Apparently word got around. In the image to the left, find the reply from Yahoo's Digital Home Blog. Click to expand it. It's either as fine a demonstration of snark you'll find or a snapshot of a very sad reality. Either way, the message is clear: At Yahoo, somebody forced somebody to start these pointless blogs and nobody likes writing them. So leave us alone. (Snark only goes so far: The blog post, ostensibly about the launch of Flickr photos on Apple TV, does not mention that the demo of this feature during Steve Jobs's Macworld keynote completely failed.) Here's a note, more to the point, from the Yahoo! Research Berkeley bloggers. More »
































