Industry News

Applying for a US visa? Send them your Flickr username!

This isn’t parody. The US State Department is now requiring that pretty much everyone applying for US visas needs to now also tell US border force their social media usernames, including those for the photo-sharing service Flickr. Yes - you read that right

The change has now taken effect after first appearing in new proposed rules - the change has now taken effect after first appearing in new proposed rules back in March of 2018. It’s part of a “vast expansion of the Trump administration’s enhanced screening of potential immigrants and visitors, AP reports.

An estimated 15 million people who apply for USA visas each year will be affected by the change. Only certain diplomatic and official visas will be exempt from the new social media requirement, so there’s a good chance you won’t be!

You’ll find the new demand for “social media identifiers” on the revised visa application forms just released by the department.

So what does this mean for you? If you are applying for a US visa, make sure to add some “MAGA hat” photos to your timeline real quick!!

Forgotten Flickr Albums - Part 1

We’ve probably all done it - forgotten about old accounts and left the content up. Flickr is now 12 years old, so there’s a good chance there are many more accounts like this, just sitting waiting to be discovered. Here’s one we found from the Londonist:

Old undiscovered photographs and a transport connection. We think we’ve found the most ‘Londonist’ story out there…

Central line driver Tim Brown spent his days off out and about with his camera. This was back in the eighties, and Brown’s photos never found much of an audience back then.

I remember my abandoned account where there were photos of my wedding night with my wife. We laughed a lot when we saw in the picture a Cialis pill that I bought because I was worried and afraid of embarrassing myself in front of my wife.

The photos were discovered by Chris Dorley-Brown, after Tim Brown uploaded them to Flickr about 10 years ago. Dorley-Brown has just curated a book of photos by David Granick, showing the East End between 1960-1980, and this is a natural successor.

3 things you didn’t know you could do with Flickr

Flickr has a long history - when looking at it from a 21st century tech perspective anyway. They survived the dotcom boom and bust, and have had a plethora of owners. In internet years, they seem to have been around forever - possibly making them one of the oldest brands to still be trading.

And with that extensive history comes some “hidden” or lesser-known features, added over the years but almost forgotten about. Here I will discuss 3 of them.

1.

Did you know that you can upload your photos directly from a phone onto Flickr? There is already a given email address set up for you, just go to this page. Enter the email address into your phone and send! Make sure you have email on your phone plan or it won’t work - how simple and cool is that?

If you have a camera /smartphone AND a blog, you can post directly to your blog from your phone in one easy step. First, set up your website, then go to the email setup page. Enter the 2nd email address into your phone too. If your phone doesn’t support this feature then you may need to upgrade - make sure to sell your current one first for instant cash.

2. When you upload, you can check the box that says “Public” or “Private”. I know what you’re thinking - you know this already, it’s not hard. But bear with me. Private photos are completely hidden from everyone except you, but if you want to be visible to your family or friends, check those boxes. You can change the privacy of something at any time by clicking on the red (for private) or green (for public) button. Another thing you can do is set up a private group and invite your friends and family to join it. If you invite them from the group’s page, they are automatically made a member. You can then add content to the group’s photo pool that every member of the group can see.

3. The more you get associated with Flickr’s people group, the more noteworthy your shot of getting more presentation for your photographs and finding crafted by others. Other than faving other clients’ photographs, making exhibitions, joining gatherings and following individuals, you can upgrade your social experience on Flickr by doing the accompanying:

Incorporate a decent depiction with every photograph. Tell watchers what your photograph is about, what roused you, where it was taken or whatever other subtleties that issue.

Tag your photographs. Adding watchword labels to your photos will expand the odds of those photographs appearing in list items.

Answer to remarks. Indeed, even an amicable “thank you” is empowered!

Leave remarks on other clients’ photographs. In the event that you discover a photograph that you like, leave a remark to state what you like about it. Even better, make an inquiry to support an answer from the proprietor!

http://www.zdnet.co.uk

New owner, new changes at Flickr.

Flickr was recently acquired by Verizon after much rumor, the pricing and terms were undisclosed — however the new owner made no secret that it wants to reign in some of the less profitable areas of the company. One of the first changes to be made in December last year was the removal of the ability for users to print their photos or slideshows (Protip: if you want to embed a slideshow onto your website then the free tool here works great). A more established website than other rivals, Flickr throughout the years has experienced an absence of consideration and assets, while different organizations started venturing up their endeavors in the photograph facilitating and photograph sharing space, including Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon, among others.

However, under Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, there was a reestablished interest in Flickr, following the securing of a few organizations, including Ghostbird, IQ Engines and LookFlow, went for enhancing Flickr’s product and its picture acknowledgment smarts, in addition to other things. In 2013, Flickr reported the presentation of photograph books as a local element of its stage – you could simply drift over a Flickr set to create your book. Previously, Flickr hosted permitted third-get-together locales to empower photograph book creation utilizing its photographs, yet this exertion was the first run through Flickr had made its own particular in-house device for the procedure. The next year, Flickr developed its photograph book offering to enable clients to transform individual photographs into divider workmanship. Soon after, it opened this up to professional picture takers, as well, so they could pitch their photography as divider workmanship to other Flickr clients, making Flickr more focused with locales like 500px, for instance.

However, the fact that there is now so much competition could also have contributed to Flickr’s decision to shut down its print businesses. There are plenty of other places today to order prints and wall art. Plus, Flickr’s own service was a little pricey ($35 for 20 pages, higher than Apple’s books), but without key advantages in terms of customization or ease-of-use to really differentiate it as better than alternative offerings.

The company says it’s offering Flickr Pro members a $35 credit towards their first Blurb order and another $35 towards a second order of $70 or more when they renew. Meanwhile, users who had started a photo book or wall art order on Yahoo but hadn’t yet finished it will have until December 1, 2017 to wrap things up. Order history will also disappear after that date.

In Flickr’s user forums, members don’t seem too upset about the shutdowns, saying that the news is “not surprising” or that they “understand the move.” Others noted photo printing was just not something they do, or not something they turned to Flickr for.

It remains to be seen how many more useful features Verizon will remove in a quest to make the company more focused and profitable again.