With SmugMug’s recent purchase of Flickr, there’s been a lot of renewed interest in former users to come back and try it again. Which is funny to me since there are plenty of us who have been actively using it non-stop. This tweet by Om Malik, in particular, got me thinking about it a bit.
I never fully understood why people were so harsh on Flickr. I mean, sure, they never made the jump to mobile like other companies did and innovation has been slow, but their web service has been consistently good. To my knowledge, Flickr has never gone backward or screwed their users… it’s just continued to exist, and those who were happy with it stayed with it.
I’m pleased that more people are coming back, for the sole reason that this surge in popularity will ensure that Flickr exists into the distant future. I don’t really care about returning photographers being excited about a “new” photo community. The photographers who stayed active on Flickr are most likely already satisfied with the groups they’ve been a part of since years of community have been building organically.
Like anyone, I’d welcome some shiny new features or slicker design, but honestly, I’m just happy that Flickr is a simple, straightforward, and hassle-free way to share and discuss photos. As it always has been.
