Zepfanman.com (Stylesheets Off Version)

Flickr for Zepfanman.com photos

So much to say about my new Flickr photo account. The main reason that I have switched to a third party service to host my photos is that I'm running out of space on my own website! In addition to having free, unlimited space, Flickr (currently in beta) has several bonus features that other sites lack: tags, community, API access, and upcoming Yahoo! integration. Two things that Flickr needs are the ability to order prints and ability to have a heirarchy of albums, like Megan > Wedding > Hair on my integrated Gallery; both functionalities are apparently coming soon.

The Flickr Pro Account for $24.95/yr seems like a really good deal (compare with free version, which is also a bargain). It will only be available while the site is still in Beta, I've gone ahead and ordered a two-year membership for $47.99. Flickr was acquired by Yahoo! in March, but there hasn't been any news about that since; hopefully this will be a good thing. Yahoo! hasn't been doing too well with any of their other new services.

For up-to-date, one-stop-shop information about Flickr, check out this continually updated page: Quick Online Tips: The Great Flickr Tools Collection. See the tagging links on this Flickr Tools page for more information about how powerful Flickr's organizing tools are. (ClickZ has some good thoughts in How Will Tags Color the Web?. Folksonomy is another tagging term described at Asterisk.) I plan on using a lot of tags on my own Flickr site. You can see all of our wedding photos from my megwed tag, for example. I'm also tagging first names of everyone in each photo (left to right). Possibilities are endless. The Flickr forums (part of the Groups community aspect of the site) have two other good tagging entries: Tagging it up describes common tags used, Tagography mentions some creative use of tags.

Concerning Flickr's competitors, I would check out this useful DigicamGuides.com Photo sharing service comparison chart (seems to have been last updated '05Mar21, although Flickr pricing is definitely off). As a side note, Nathan Schmidt has created his own photo website which is simple but useful. His DPS Dance Outdoor Photo Shoot album showcases just a few of his impressive photos.

That should be plenty to whet your whistle with for now. I regret having to let my Menalto Gallery fall by the wayside, but I was never incredibly happy with it from the beginning. While Flickr is not quite as flexible and feature-filled as Menalto's Gallery software, I think it's a lot easier to use, both for me and for site visitors. There's even a Flickr Mobile Site which has very limited capabilities (only shows three photos at a time and no tagging options) but is good for dial-up users and cell phone internet users to see the latest photos.

'05Jun8 update: Comparison to free version link updated. Aug23, link updated after being changed again!

By rockofvictory | Mon 2005May09 09:36 CST | Gallery | Last edited Tue 2005Aug23 08:14 CST
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