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This article details some of the issues we encountered with Yahoo. http://gizmodo.com/5910223/how-yahoo-killed-flickr-and-lost-the-internet http://gizmodo.com/5
by neilk 11y ago
This article details some of the issues we encountered with Yahoo. http://gizmodo.com/5910223/how-yahoo-killed-flickr-and-lost-the-internet http://gizmodo.com/5910223/how-yahoo-killed-flickr-and-lost-...
I would add though, that Flickr Mobile (which I worked on a little) was considered one of the best mobile websites ever made. However, because a certain executive had managed to get control of all of Yahoo's mobile experiences, we weren't allowed to innovate with mobile too much.
When a native Flickr app was finally released, I was no longer at Flickr. But I heard that it had been developed by a different team at Yahoo, and was a complete surprise to Flickr upon launch. The new app hit the "random" API so hard for their login screen, to the Flickr staff, it looked like a DDOS.
But I think we all missed on the opportunity mobile offered because we were trying to shrink Flickr into a mobile site. Flickr was designed for serendipity and rich experiences. If you were a creative person, looking to participate in a planetary social-cultural conversation, it was incredible.
Meanwhile, Facebook made photos into an accessory for the average person's social life. For creative people and dabblers, Instagram offered the best mobile experience; it worked with the constraints of the platform and even turned those into features.
Something of this dichotomy is still playing out with Twitter and Facebook taking opposite poles. Although it looks like Twitter has finally given up and decided that it's a Kardashian photo delivery system or something.
- protomyth 11y agoI think that pretty much sums up why Yahoo went to hell and cannot adapt. My sympathies on having to deal with that. I wonder how many business have gone under because of need to "scale and act professionally"?
- flickrthroway 11y ago"was considered one of the best mobile websites ever made" According to whom? The experience, like the app, was simply awful. None of the Web calls were bandwidth conscious nor polite to browsing in general. The experience sucks hard to this day. That's not an opinion, it's a fact.
- flickrthroway 11y ago"was considered one of the best mobile websites ever made" According to whom? The experience, like the app, was simply awful. None of the Web calls were bandwidth conscious nor polite to browsing in general. The experience sucks hard to this day. That's not an opinion, it's a fact.