The Four-eyed Journal

So it’s official and working. Videos can now be uploaded to Flickr just like on PhotoBucket. But there are a lot of strings attached to this one:

• 90-second cap on video length and 150MB in size
• Only “safe” and “moderate” videos are allowed
• Original content is a must
• Only users with PRO Flickr accounts can upload videos

Of course everyone else could watch the videos. However, I see something else with this new development in Flickr. Why would a photo storage and sharing site would host videos? There are a lot of good websites that already do this and Flickr has been doing good at hosting and sharing photos. It even led to Zooomr’s migration to Japan. So why host videos all of sudden?

From my comment left on Yuga’s post about this new Flickr feature, it is perhaps an attempt to “break the ice”, so to speak, because if I’m correct no significantly new development has happened to Flickr since of late except for this one. They’ve done the photo hosting and sharing gig so well there was almost nothing new to do or to try.

And so, moving pictures was the next logical step. After all, Flickr is still a photo hosting and sharing site remember?

But why just 90 seconds of video fun? Why are there so much strings attached to new feature?

The answer is found in the Flickr FAQ:

Video on Flickr is going to be defined by our incredible, diverse, far-flung and fabulously talented members. Some answers that we’ve come up with:

1. A long photo
2. Personal
3. Simple – not overproduced or slick
4. Possibly the best answer so far: The Great Unknown

Okay. Still, somehow, and you’ve guessed it from the title of this post, I cannot help but think that Flickr Video is their take on what has made Twitter so successful.

• Just 140 characters
• Personal
• Simple - not like a full blown blog post like this one
• Just answer one question: What are you doing?

If 140 characters of personal updates from friends, colleagues, family and fellow bloggers can be so addicting, a 90-second video would be just as tasty and interesting as well. We’re not even talking about the excitement of shooting a 90-second clip. Perhaps this would be my ticket to videoblogging, eh?

So, what would your 90-second Flickr video would be like?

PS: You could follow me on Twitter or see my Flickr photos here.

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Flickr, Photobucket, Slide, Zooomr just to name some of the most popular image hosting sites in the web. Add to this the numerous social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster, Multiply, Facebook etc, these networks too rely on giving their users the ability to post images online for the whole world or even just their family to view and enjoy.

All this thanks to the increasing power and portability of the digital camera and now, the common-place camera phones, ‘camera whores’ and photo enthusiasts have been given a whole new world to create, capture and store in .jpeg glory.

*photo by naughton321

However, this news from eFluxMedia about photos of Californian teen swimmers that were found on gay porn sites have led me to ask the question that is the title of this post. The story goes,

Numerous photos of teen water polo players from several South Californian high schools were posted on number of gay Web sites, a newspaper reported.

Photos of boys in swimming suit, some as young as 14, were displayed next to other photographs of nude young men and graphic sexual content, according to an Orange County Register investigation.

The result of the investigation caused upset amid parents, coaches and school officials. Some of the boys, which found out that some pictures of them were displayed on gay sites, were traumatized and are reportedly seeking counseling.

“These kids don’t look at what they do as shameful,” said Joan Gould, spokeswoman for a group of Orange County water polo parents.

“For someone to come in and take what these kids are doing and take it out of context and exploit these images, these kids and their schools, because you can see the school name on the caps, is just horrible.”

Scary isn’t it? First you were having a great time taking those photos and being in some of them, uploading them to your online photo album or blog for all your friends and contacts to view then the next thing you know, you’ve now become a pornstar!

This is not something new though, based on my web surfing years and joining numerous social networking sites, I’ve seen my share of stories and cases wherein people would use other member’s photos to be used on their own profiles and accounts as if the photos were of themselves! In some rare cases, evil-doers and cyber-stalkers were using fake photos to scam and trick their victims from doing indecent things on the web cam to fooling them into thinking they have just found the love of their lives and even into stealing their money or financial information.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and that words are mightier than swords so when cases like this do happen, the toll on its victims can be tremendous and its effects equally tragic and horrifying.

Sure there are measures to protect our photos and ourselves. There are watermarks to be placed in images, disabling the right-click function in our webpages, licensing options and restricting access to our online photos. Still, how certain are we that our photos are just viewed or used legally and fairly with all the techniques to crack and by-pass safety measures both new and old, all readily available via the web?

Or are we to blame too? That we should also limit what photos we upload and share into the public via the web?

This questions dwell on the context of the photos that we take ourselves. But what of the photos of our selves that are taken by others? How sure or certain are we that those images are handled and used fairly, legally and with no consequences that we either disapprove of or be harmful to us?

One question has led to a plethora of more questions. Any one who would like to take a few and give their thoughts? I’ll be sharing mine in the next couple of days as I’ll give all of these more thought and reflection. In the meantime, I hope no one gets paranoid and takes down all of their photos from the web.

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It’s been almost a week now since Zooomr has started the transition to its Mark III version which loaded with over 250 new features. I stuck to Zooomr because it has way lots more to offer than Flickr and it’s all for free. Nothing personal against Flickr though, but Zooomr has done something that is definitely worthy of praise and patronage.

Honestly, I’m beginning to be a bit impatient but this is because of the excitement I felt ever since watching the demo video of the Zooomr Mark III.

Sure there were plenty of dead moments and live bloopers in the clip but it offers a taste of what the new Mark III version has to offer. Deep Jive Interests has a rundown of what’s in store for us in Mark III:

• Logins: You can now login with a proper email / password process that is familiar to everyone — in addition to openID
• Smart Search: you can search with some unusual features like “most awesome” and “near location” (such as “near starbucks”)
• World Through Photos: this is a feature that Kris spent a *lot* of time talking about, in that you’ll be able to use a mashup of GoogleMaps to search for place names, using their proper names. For example, hitting in “Eiffel Tower” will take you to where it is on GoogleMaps (and presumably some photos as well)
• Discover: Best Hundred — you can discover the best one hundred photos over a given time period, whether it be over the past year, past month or what have you at a glance
• Groups: Think Google groups, but centered around photos, allowing you to create messages and what not around specific photos.
• You: There a lot of slick Ajax to create a rich user interface with respect to viewing your own photos and profile
• Widgets Within Photos: Even though Kris demonstrated this, I still had a hard time understanding what he meant — perhaps that you would be able to syndicate information *within* photos through different media as widgets, such as tags, and so on. In fact …
• People Tagging: You can tag people in photos, like what is already offered in Facebook, and then send a message to them about the photo that you took … a viral feature for photos.
• Instantaneous search: Through the magic of Ajax, things look fast without loading times
• Marketplace: Kris didn’t share to many details other than it will be easy, you can charge ridiculous amounts (if the market will bear it), and there’s 90% share for users
• Comments / Messaging / Dialogue: There is a sophisticated messaging system for each photograph allowing you to have a conversation with different people underneath each photograph — it will also let the photographer know so as to include him the conversation:
• Search by color / palette: You can add in hexadecimal colors to search for different photos
• Portals: Creating a photographic link to another photograph on someone else’s photograph (a “portal”)
• Zipline: You’ll be able to see at a glance, and in reverse chronological order what your friends are doing, saying, and their photos

All these features plus unlimited storage and the ability to sell your photos while keeping 90% of the sale. Of course all these, is still for free. Who could resist such an awesome service?

Let’s hope the transition period finishes real soon, I’m sure the other Zooomr users are itching to dive in create new things with their photos.

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