Pictures tend to transcend language barriers, and now Flickr is trying to do the same – Yahoo’s photo-sharing site has just added support for seven new languages.
A Yahoo press release makes clear the reason for this development – “to help the global Flickr community more easily explore, find, manage and share photos” – but you probably guessed that already.
What you may not have known is that “[o]ver half of Flickr members already use Flickr in regions outside the United States, and this new language support will bring the Flickr community to even more people around the world.” Well done, Yahoo, for actually including useful statistics in a press release.
At any rate, affected markets (and/or individuals) will be those that speak German, Italian, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and “Traditional Chinese.” Unfortunately, it looks like at least one would-be target may be closed to Flickr – the site has been blocked in China for the past week or so.
Ah, well. While that’s somewhat depressing, at least we have a quote from Stewart Butterfield to enjoy. When giving reasons about why it took so long for Flickr to go multilingual, the blunt co-founder told Monsters and Critics, “One: We are stupid. Two: that we are late.”
I’ve never spoken with Butterfield, but I like his style. And now millions of non-English speakers will get the opportunity to become fans of him, Flickr, and Yahoo.
