Flickr Video Goes Live
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Speculation has finally given way to reality with Flickr’s launch today of video uploading. User’s now have the option to add video clips of up to 90 seconds and no more than 150 megabytes.
“The Flickr team, led by Director of Product Management Kakul Srivastava, spent considerable time debating the feature set and user experience internally before launch.”
Speculation had be rife regarding whether Flickr Video would go head to head with YouTube for control over online streaming media, however given the tool’s current 90-second cap it’s clear that Flickr has something different in mind - at least for the moment. This seems to be re-inforced by the fact videos are featured side-by-side with still photographs. Flickr seems keen to not differentiate between the two.
As TechCrunch continues:
“The goal is not to have people upload long videos or clips of copyrighted material. To reinforce that, videos can be only 90 seconds in length and 150MB in size (however these limitations may be changed later, Srivastava says).”
The Flickr Video Help site phrases things differently however, saying:
“We’re not trying to limit your artistic freedom, we’re trying something new. Everyone has endured that wedding video, where even the bride will fast-forward to the “good bit.” In fact, even Tara at FlickrHQ hasn’t made it past the first 90 seconds of her own wedding video.”
From a media quality standpoint the video image is crystal clear, and the media player that delivers the embedded clips is very unobtrusive.
“The system has been designed to scale any clip you can throw at it, including high-definition from high-end point-and-shoot cameras or your HD-capable camcorder. The one noticeable difference from competing services is the frame rate. Flickr videos are capped at a measly 12 fps, which is half the speed of film cameras, and a fourth of the frames captured by modern consumer digital cameras. If you have any fast-moving footage, it’s going to look like it’s come from an aging cell phone–which is unfortunate, because once you notice it on one video, you’ll notice it on all the rest.”
At the risk of seriously embarrassing myself I’ve uploaded this particular video to demonstrate the video quality users can expect from Flickr Video, and the user interface of the player. Given the 90 second cap, it’s the only clip I had on-hand at the time; but in the interests of proper documentation I had to include something. So goes the dedication of at tech blogger 
References:
- “At last, Flickr adds support for video“, ZDNet, 8 April 2008
- “Flickr launches video hosting“, Webware, 8 April 2008
- “Yahoo extends Flickr with video“, CNet, 8 April 2008
- “Flicker Video Launches - A Unique Experience“, TechCrunch, 8 April 2008
- Flickr Video Help site
- “Lady Bugs Picnic“, Mike Bogle (acousticdad), Flickr
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008