Microsoft Should Wash Hands Before Touching Photos

by Josh on February 13, 2008 · Comments

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One of the most interesting things to come out of the continuing saga of Microsoft buying out Yahoo is a group of people that have banded together in a Flickr Photo Pool aptly named Microsoft Keep your Evil Grubby Hands off our Flickr.

For those that don’t know, Flickr is owned by Yahoo. Some think the consolidation will destroy what has been the internet’s most popular photo management and sharing site.

The fears are that Microsoft will either moderate and censor photos or take away the open nature of the site and the Flickr API (Application Program Interface). Really, It’s all the same concerns that arose when Yahoo acquired Flickr… and so it goes on.

With Flickr’s popularity, Microsoft will certainly not shut it down as it has done with other companies, but the most definite integration with Windows Live may make some people cringe. On the top end of the spectrum however, this may help their search market share. There may be an increase, but even combining Microsoft and Yahoo together doesn’t begin to approach Google’s dominance in the market.

Oh, have you noticed? This has gone on for a long time.

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Comments

Josh

I agree Pete. A lot of the fear is from long time users that don't trust M$crosoft. It was a lot of the same fears when yahoo bought flickr. personally I not sure about the integration of microsoft live and yahoo service, email, business, groups, pipes. we will see.

Pete Yodis

Wonder what industry it would affect the most? Scanning/reverse engineering?

I think we'll eventually see this coupled with Virtual Earth (similar to Google's Virtual Earth, but I would argue better). The virtual earth could begin to look very real and even more real as more people upload photos to the internet. As more pictures are taken and uploaded, photosynthe can use more data from the web to drive the data in Virtual Earth. Virtual Earth would be a system for making money via advertising as everyone would look to it for information (maybe web 3.0, 4.0,...??) I don't think they are looking to have really accurate scanning/reverse engineering apps come from photosynthe. I see no reason why they would kill Flickr. In fact if something like photosynthe could really take advantage of Flickr, then I would think Microsoft would try to improve and promote Flickr.

Bob Sauber

As for me. I have no idea how MS could screw Flickr... In any case they will not be allowed to by Yahoo.

Bruce Buck

Yes, muy interesante indeed (photosynth). Wonder what industry it would affect the most? Scanning/reverse engineering?

Josh

true Pete. Photosynth is an interesting project and I've talked about using it to get 3D data. There was a presentation on Ted.com I believe that showed them already pulling photos from Flickr to build the models, but you won't see anything about it on the Photosynth website...yet. Thanks for mentioning that.

Pete Yodis

Josh,

Take a look at Photosynthe from Microsoft. Its a development project and you can watch a demonstration on You tube or somewhere else. This might explain why they would be interested in Flickr, and using the data on Flickr to drive the models created from Photosynthe.

Pete