Flickr has just announced a re-design to its site and apps, as well as new pricing. The site looks much nicer, getting rid of the white space and filling it with more images. In a way, the new UI reminds me of 500px. The re-design is nice and all, but that is not why I am sitting here trembling while I write this. Why am I really excited? Flickr is now offering 1 TB of cloud storage for FREE!
You did read that right – it’s 1 Terabyte. As in… 1024 GB. This makes any other storage services on the web seem like a silly joke. Granted, it is not a direct competitor to Google Drive, Dropbox or any other similar cloud storage solutions. Flickr is focused on images, but it’s still surprising to see them offering a TB while Google gives us 15 GB and looks good doing so.
The “cloud” is the future of computing. Us Chromebook users can attest to the fact that most work we do can be accomplished with a browser. We can even do some light photo and video editing on Chrome. If you are a photo enthusiast, you are probably a Flickr user, and you will realize 1 TB of cloud storage opens many doors and sets a new industry standard. Yahoo mentions a TB can store over 500,000 images in full resolution. No downsizing, no loss of quality.
In short, Flickr has upgraded our accounts to what used to be “Pro” and given us an amount of storage space very few will be able to fill up. If you do, though, you can also upgrade to 2 TB for the price of $499.99 a year. Which is worth it if your job depends on it. You can also say goodbye to ads if you pay $49.99 a year.
I am officially shocked. I just wonder if cloud storage companies will respond to the photo-centric network in any way. In a way, Google does compete with Flick with Google+ Photos (and Picasa, before). I simply can’t see why any photographer would opt to pay Google to store his/her photos when a TB of storage is readily available from Flickr. I mean, I just checked and I am using 0.10% of my Flickr storage. I know I will be sticking with Flickr for my photo needs, will you?
[Flickr]
