Wow, what insight and forethought Yahoo has. Now if they would stop screwing around and work on search, they might build some momentum. I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall in a Yahoo corporate meeting, I would probably bust my little heart before the meeting is over with laughing so hard...and then would come the fly swatter, sigh.

Only about 2 years too late

90 second videos? speachless, I am without speach..

Actually, as a Pro Flickr member and looking at the implementation, I like it. Not saying it's going to kill Youtube. But then youtube is offering free bandwidth, is wrought with copyright issues that according to some are severe enough that it may take down Google and the content is often total crap. The youtube "community" is not high end. At Flickr, the Pro accounts are the only ones allowed to upload, and if you make a community of friends with quality content on Flickr, the videos are a nice addition.

Because they are pro accounts, Flickr has what I think is a scalable model to free them of copyright issues.

Just don't see this as a negative thing at all, as long as you don't define it as saving Yahoo from Microsoft or making too big a deal out of it.

Bravo Yahoo.

Clark, don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily disagree with anything you said. My only bone of contention here is the 90 second limit. Beyond a commercial or some stock footage, what possible use can a 90 second video be?

To late Flickr. I was waiting for video options for years, only to switch to Smugmug Pro, and never look back. No time or space limits and as much customization as I could ever need.

dakuma,

I'd love no time limit too, but not sure what the cost/benefit is to them. I think they are real concerned not to make it too big a move that would alienate a vibrant community. I got an invitation to a group to demand that Yahoo! remove videos, but I doubt it will gain much steam because they eased into it and the implementation is subtle.

Maybe in future version the limit will be longer. Remember, they probably realized that the Microsoft attack required an early release of all their upcoming projects, so they are taking a few plunges and want to do so w/o blowback.

Offering longer videos w/o the infrastructure ready could be the reason it started this way.

Clark,

Never considered the impending merger into this, great point though. Yahoo's rate of announcements have picked up recently, some good and some a bit off IMO, but interesting times :)

Thinking Photography, 90 seconds of video is enough to show most clips recorded on compact digital cameras. Are Flickr really trying to compete with the likes of YouTube?

Personally I feel it would be better if Flickr split its video and photo sites - keep them separate. Using a video camera and taking a photograph are two different skills and art forms.

Regardless, I'm sure it'll be a runaway success.

Syzygy