Yahoo's Flickr ends Google and Facebook sign-ins June 30th
In a move a long time coming, Flickr users have began receiving email notifications from Yahoo, announcing the termination of Google and Facebook sign-in integration, by June 30th 2014, after which date, Flickr users who do not have a Yahoo account, will need to create one in order to continue using the service.
When third party logins were introduced three years ago, Yahoo Inc. hoped to widen its dwindling user-base and gain traction once again as a top competitor.
Under Marissa Mayer’s new leadership, the company is beginning to take bolder steps, and the elimination of third party sign-ins is a clear indication of Mayer’s determination in rebuilding and strengthening the company from the inside, and re-establish it as a solid, stand-alone entity.
Flickr is perhaps one of the most recognizable of Yahoo’s brands
... and the most popular that comes to mind, yet there are Yahoo services accessed on a daily basis by millions of users, such as the twice nominated Apple Design Award winner Yahoo News Digest, and Yahoo Answers.
Yahoo Messenger is another staple Yahoo product, this one with a long history as one of the early successful instant messengers for the masses, and one of the very few remaining from the early days, since Microsoft retired MSN Live (formerly Microsoft Windows Messenger), and replaced it with Skype.
Marissa Mayer’s focus on Flickr is anything but misdirected, in an era where mobile photography represents the lion’s share of mobile engagement, Flickr is a product with plenty of potential, and in need of every bit of attention it can get.
Flickr’s 1 -Terabyte free offer has attracted a multitude of new users, most of which have used third-party sign-ins, which might be an indication that the company has yet to prove that it stands behind its product. June 30th Mayer will find out how many of those third-party sign-ins will convert into Yahoo accounts.
Existing challenges
One of the most annoying obstacles in Flickr, is the inability to make use of the 1TB of free storage with a proper bulk upload application, in a similar way as other apps like Google’s Picasa.
At present, Flickr mobile users have the option of uploading from smartphones and tablets using Auto Sync, universally known as “auto backup”. Flickr users who wish to upload entire folders from their desktop computers, must go through a rather laborious process of creating folders within the Flickr, and uploading each folder individually.
The challenge presented to professional photographers who may want to upload literally thousands of shots, while keeping them organized in a proper folder structure, is still definitely daunting. On the other hand, Flickr is about the only company offering such staggering amount of free storage.
Marissa Mayer’s decision is one worthy of applause, which seems to take appropriate steps to correct many of the past mistakes from previous CEOs, but the question lingers: in an era where tech giants like Google, Apple and Microsoft are dividing up the lion’s share of the market, is Yahoo running out of time?