Flickr Video: Turn That Frown Upside Down!

Flickr video launched a few days ago and I didn’t look into it beyond noticing the sleek integration and video quality. Compared to YouTube, it’s outstanding!

Some people are mad. I don’t understand why.

The new video-sharing feature lets Flickr ‘Pro’ users upload 90-second videos. Some users are protesting that the site will become full of crap like YouTube. How is allowing users who pay 25$ per year to upload really short video clips going to make Flickr worse? First of all, spammers will not pay to pass along their crap. Secondly, 90 seconds is not long enough to compete against YouTube’s generous 10-minute video allowance. This limit in length will make it hard for people to repost copyrighted content. Would you watch a whole TV episode if it was sliced into 15 or 30 clips? Didn’t think so.

Say hello to portrait oriented videos! Pictured right is Les Chutes Dorwin à Rawdon, Québec, Canada. Chipple, friend and former employee who moved to Japan, shot this video at a 16:9 aspect ratio showing the new possibilities that await when you turn your camera sideways!

Flickr is also good at managing adult-oriented content. When Flickr was still in Beta I once searched for the word ‘Eye’. I got a really odd result page filled with pictures of babies and penises and a few actual eyes. (I have a screen shot somewhere…) Normally this would totally turn me against a website but I really like Flickr and with more than 1,400 pictures uploaded, commented and tagged, I am personally invested in their success. Instead of throwing in the towel and saying “Well we can’t really control what people put on our website, it’s the Internet you know…” They have kept things classy. I’ve been very satisfied with Flickr’s implemented of content rating management on many levels. I wholeheartedly support a company that put a lot of effort into managing its users content without completely squashing free-speech or refusing adult content based on arbitrary rules that puts ‘breast cancer’ on the same level as ‘breast pictures’. I have a safe-rated account and it efficiently blocks all inappropriate (flagged) and adult content from my view but will not prevent me from finding artwork from an artist who just happens to paint nudes.

Flickr is part of the solution I offer all my clients who do visual arts. There is no better community to share crafts, paintings and other art. It is on Flickr that a publisher noticed my work and contacted me for a book deal. I welcome the human and business benefits that come from displaying my work on Flickr. I hope my artists will be excited about Flickr video’s ability to properly convey the three dimensional aspects of their work.