Video on Flickr
For a long time there have been rumors that photo sharing site Flickr was planning to add video upload capability. While to some this sounded like an obvious and beneficial feature to include, for many other hard core Flickr users the reaction to these rumors ranged from concern that the inclusion of video would change the Flickr community in a negative way to down right anger. The reaction of these users, which seemed for a long time to be the majority or at least a very vocal minority, did not stop the development of this functionality, however. Flickr announced today that video is no longer a rumor.....it is here. Members will be able to upload 90 second video clips to the site, which, presumably, will become part of their media stream. In their release statement, as if foreshadowing what could be their biggest hurdle in the future, Flickr very specifically stated that just as they encourage "sharing photos that you yourself have taken.....video will be no different."
But it wasn't only the fear of turning into another version of YouTube or morphing into a kind of PhotoBucket that drove many Flickr users to speak out against video functionality. In fact, many users were actually concerned that the inclusion of video would change their 'experience' of the site not necessarily because it would become a destination point for silly video clips but because it would change the very nature and 'feeling' of the community, causing exclusionary video-only groups to pop-up and de-emphasizing the community's main focus around photography. Interestingly enough, Flickr itself has fought battles to protect this kind of focus before, even though their efforts angered certain other members of the community. As I blogged in 2006, Flickr enacted a policy that banned screenshots from global search results because they determined that screenshots were not in fact photographs. This policy of protecting the Flickr mission statement on photo sharing was handed down directly from the original founders of the Flickr platform, making many users wonder if the new video features have anything to do with the founders. Several users even expressed the opinion that video on Flickr is actually an effort by Yahoo to compete with Goggle Video and not anything to do with enhancing Flickr user experience.
While members of the Flickr community will likely sit on both sides of the fence of this debate for quite a while, the question still remains. Will this ultimately be a good move for Flickr? As a place on the web long thought of for its community features, best practices, forward thinking functionality and simplistic visual design, in addition to its photographs, will changing the method by which members can communicate actually cause a break down of the very fabric that made Flickr the Webby Award winner for the number one community site in 2007? Will the inclusion of video attract a different kind of user not interested in participating and communicating in the same way many in the Flickr community do currently?
As someone who has used Flickr for over two years and has long said that it is one of my favorite sites on the web, I can certainly understand the concern from users. Changing what Flickr offers to its user can change the type of user, thus changing the type of user groups created, the type of information shared, the type of communication between users and thus the community as a whole. However, all that being said, there are certainly advantages to being able to supplement conversation, information and opinions with video. And I do think that because of the way Flickr inherently operates, the ability to upload video will not immediately become the kind of feature that inundates the site with garbage and instantaneous change. As an example, unlike other sites that would have advertised the new features in bright bold red letters, Flickr only boasts a small little graphic on its home page, almost invisible to anyone not looking for it. Upon logging in, a user is presented with a couple of indications that there is a new feature, a snippet from the Flickr blog, the change from "Upload Photos" to "Upload Photos and Videos" but, in true Flickr style, nothing that disrupts the utility of the home page. As with every other new feature they have released, Flickr seems thus far to be adhering to its long time tradition of simplicity over everything else. And, the fact that these features are advertised in this way, certainly attempts to clarify that this functionality is being released FOR existing users not in a blind attempt to attract a different kind of audience. And for all of that I applaud them so far.....anything else, well, we will have to wait and see.....this could be a really amazing supplement to an already vibrant and interesting community. Let's hope thats how it plays out...