Once upon a time, Flickr was the place to share photos for professional and amateur photographers who wanted a secure and feature-rich site to store their images online. Since then, the likes of Google Photos and Apple Photos have overtaken Flickr, which was acquired by Yahoo in 2005.
Well, Flickr might be ready for a comeback, because it has new owners: photo storage and portfolio site SmugMug bought Flickr and dreams of giving it a new makeover and update for 2018.
"SmugMug has acquired Flickr," says an update on the SmugMug site. "We could not be more excited to unite two brands that share the same mission, passions and values." For the time being, the terms of the agreement, which include how much SmugMug Yahoo spent on Flickr, have not been disclosed.
Perfect partners
If you have a Flickr account, you can be sure that it will not go anywhere, at least in the short term. Flickr will remain a separate entity, but SmugMug says it wants to grow the site and the associated mobile apps, and add new features. Similarly, SmugMug accounts will work normally for the foreseeable future.
"Here at SmugMug we love and live photography, which makes us the perfect partners of the Flickr team," says the SmugMug team. "Our communities complement each other and have done so for years, together, our brands give photographers an online place to fit and a place to stand out."
Flickr received a new coat of paint five years ago, but since then languished amid the rise of social networking services such as Instagram and Facebook. While you may not notice big changes immediately, the agreement between SmugMug and Flickr could lead Flickr to become a force to be reckoned with again.