A long-awaited feature arrived for the photography fans of Flickr, as the site opened up video uploading for its pro members.
At a maximum 90 seconds in length, Flickr videos are more of an extended photograph. No one will be uploading a pirated version of the next Indiana Jones movie, but longer content was never the point of adding video to Flickr anyway.
Heather Champ said at the Flickr blog the 90 second limit arrived after a lot of thought about bringing video into Flickr’s world of still images.
“You know that Flickr is all about sharing photos that you yourself have taken,” she said. “Video will be no different and so what quickly bubbled up was the idea of “long photos,” of capturing slices of life to share.”
Champ also noted Flickr doubled the size of photos its members may add to the site. Pro members get to place 20MB photos in their streams, while basic accounts can upload 10MB images.
Flickr asks that video uploaders keep a couple of concepts in mind. Videos should be ones created by the uploader, and only “safe” and “moderate” content will be permitted. Flickr doesn’t want to become another adult-content YouTube clone like the ones out there already.
Andrew Baron suggested a way to take advantage of the format being offered for Flickr Video. Through the use of a pool of little clips, Baron created a montage of video that gave a broader glimpse of an event, Maker Faire.
“How can you get the info across in the most effective and precise way, without wasting the time of a jaded, snarky and very click-away-busy-like audience?” he asked. A bunch of short clips was the answer, one we expect others will imitate as news of Flickr video spreads.
