Flickr confirms YouTube rival

 

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By Stuart Turton

Posted on 18 Mar 2008 at 14:56

Flickr is ready to debut its video service, with rumours suggesting the beta will make an appearance next month.

Yahoo, which bought Flickr in 2005, has confirmed to PC Pro it's working on a video service, but opinion is already divided on whether introducing video sharing is the right move for the site.

Commentators are suggesting it's already missed the boat and has now fallen too far behind YouTube for it to make any impact, while others have suggested that with a community of around 23 million members, Flickr video can't help but be a success.

Doubts have also been raised on Flickr's forums, where members are extremely protective of Flickr's status as a photo-sharing website and wary of the copyright issues that have dogged video-sharing services in the past.

"I hope they DON'T incorporate video sharing on Flickr," says one poster. "It's one place where we can look at just pictures, without any adverts/flashing banners, cringe-worthy MySpace pages, or getting a Facebook poke. Please don't turn it into another YouTube. That place is a mess. Flickr is perfect as it is."

Speaking on the video sharing service, Yahoo would only comment: "We don't discuss specifics on future plans, but it will be available soon, and we are very excited. We want to do it the right way and we're taking the time to make sure the experience is seamless."