Although this fact isn’t likely to earn Yahoo a government bailout, it seems that Flickr can count the Library of Congress among its fans. An experiment the Library was conducting has turned out far better than anyone expected.
Back in January, the Library made around 3,000 old photos out of a much larger collection available for viewing. Flickr members were supposed to make themselves useful by attaching appropriate tags and comments to the pics. Think of it as crowd-sourced research, in addition to the enjoyment and education factors.
Now, a post on the Library of Congress Blog states, “Only nine months into the Library of Congress’ pilot project placing Library photos on the Web site Flickr, the photos have drawn more than 10 million views, 7,166 comments and more than 67,000 tags.” Around 79 percent of them have been marked as “favorites,” too.
The Library of Congress should continue its involvement with Flickr as a result. Other entities may join in, as well (apparently 16 institutions have been testing the water). This looks to be a big win for the photo-sharing service.
Again, though, outside pressures exist. Case in point: Flickr laid off three employees (one of whom was a rather key figure) this week for reasons that remain unclear.
