Yahoo announces Flickr redesign, 1 terabyte free space
Yahoo announced Monday a complete redesign of photo-sharing site Flickr and a new office in New York City.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer kicked off a press event in the Big Apple by first acknowledging the company's acquisition of Tumblr, the popular blogging platform, then saying that more than 500 Yahoo employees will soon be moving into the old New York Times building -- and namesake for Times Square.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg congratulated Mayer on the Tumblr deal by quipping, "From one mayor to another, I want to say congratulations."
But this event wasn't about Tumblr.
Mayer went on to say that as the rumors of Tumblr's acquisition began to circulate, another company with a dropped letter came up: Flickr.
The photo-sharing company was one of the hippest websites on the Internet -- home to professional photographers, hipsters and burgeoning hobbyists. But the site began to stagnate after it was acquired by Yahoo in 2005.
When Mayer became the CEO of Yahoo last year, a web campaign to redesign Flickr went viral. The website DearMarissaMayer.com launched and had one message: "Please make Flickr awesome again."
Mayer may have been sending a message to fans when she said Monday night that Yahoo was committed to making Flicker "awesome again."
Flickr's team has been busy at work to reboot the brand and make it competitive to a new generation of photographers. In December 2012, the Flickr mobile app for iOS devices was redesigned to add fliters and sharing capabilities that is comparable to Instagram. Now the team is adding features that is more aligned with its contemporaries.
"Marissa asked us to reimagine Flickr, " said Michael Cahan, senior vice president of mobile and emerging products, "She honestly asked us to simply change the world."
Cahan highlight three major changes that Flickr will go live today: redesigned website and android app, full resolution images and 1 terabyte of free cloud storage.
"We wanted to bring a photo-centric world," Cahan said before showing a new Flickr homepage that features a stream of large photos that look similar to Pinterest or 500px.
Flickr reports 89 million users. The site was launched in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo in 2005. The website DearMarissaMayer.com has been updated to say, "Dear Marissa Mayer, Thank you for making Flickr awesome again."
