Written By Reprise Media | May 17, 2006 | Share This |

flickr into gamma.jpg

Online photo sharing site Flickr has moved out of beta and moved into - yes, they’re calling it gamma. It’s accompanied by a major overhaul to the site’s photo organization system and search capabilities.

Search Engine Watch directs us to Flickr fan Thomas Hawk’s rundown, which is actually more helpful than Flickr’s own announcement (”Instead of explaining everything in minute detail, I’d much rather just step back and let you get started exploring…”). There’s a new “person” menu to help users connect with and get to know other photo-sharing persons, and the top menus are now stuffed full of pulldown options.

That’s all just fine, but we really like the direction they’re taking with search - no doubt influenced by parent company Yahoo! Results are now returned according to the most relevant photos to your query (although you can still tab over to “most recent” and “most interesting”), a big step forward for the site’s most frequently frustrating function. The search bar now incorporates full Boolean support (your ANDs, ORs, NOTs, etc.) and the advanced search option includes several new filters, including one that returns photos according to their Creative Commons license - easily find photos to use commercially or to “modify, adapt, or build upon.”

Flickr has also much improved their “Organizr” tool, adding drag & drop and double-click functionality to the “Findr” bar (sadly, they continue their unfortunate war on the letter “e”). For more info, check out their newly minted FAQ section for the Organizr here.

Topics: Search: Image |