Slashdot Log In
Microsoft Plans Flickr Competitor
Posted by
Zonk
on Wed Nov 14, 2007 01:22 PM
from the piktrs-maybe-or-photoz dept.
from the piktrs-maybe-or-photoz dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Judging by newly posted job calls, Microsoft is now working on a Flickr-like online photo service. ZDNet reports: '"This feature team is building a next-generation photo and video sharing service that will compete with Flickr, SmugMug and other photo web solutions today. This is a 'v1' opportunity," the ad said. And video will be a part of the effort, too: "This role will work across the new Windows Live division with teams like Spaces, SkyDrive, Messenger and Hotmail to construct a winning strategy for Microsoft in photo and video sharing." Evidently, Microsoft sees the effort as an online extension of its current desktop technology.' Gundeep Hora, at CoolTechZone, feels that such a service is unlikely to succeed, and lays out the numerous challenges the company will face upon entering the market."
Related Stories
Submission: Why Microsoft's Flickr Competitor Will Fail by Anonymous Coward
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Say what? (Score:4, Insightful)
Is this this same strategy which has brought us massive code bloat at the cost of random number security? [slashdot.org]
One of these days, someone is going to come up with an April Fools 'Virtual Wombat Herding' and Microsoft will "innovate" their own incarnation as it will be seen as a vital extension of its current desktop technology and won't they look the silly buggers.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
It's quite easy to see a potential integration between Facebook (through some app), MSN Messenger, Photosynth, and their Flickr competitor that could produce some interesting results.
Mod parent up (Score:3, Insightful)
You can select friends and or family only... (Score:2, Informative)
The catch is that your friends & family have to register with yahoo.
Re:You can select friends and or family only... (Score:4, Insightful)
That's kind of a massive, deal-breaking catch. IMO, it renders the feature absolutely useless. It's arrogant to demand that people register and get a stupid Yahoo account just to look at photos (would I do that? hell no; I'm not going to ask anyone else to).
A better system would work more like Google's Picasa system, which lets you make an "unlisted" album with a special URL, and email that URL out to anyone you want. As long as someone has the URL, they can view the album.
Such features have been a hot request item on Flickr for more than two years now, but the developers seem stubborn about not implementing them. I don't know if it's some deal they have with Yahoo, to try and get more people signed up with Yahoo accounts, or something else entirely, but they're shooting themselves in the foot, big time.
Parent
Re:You can select friends and or family only... (Score:4, Insightful)
http://www.flickr.com/help/guestpass/ [flickr.com]
So much for your little conspiracy theory that Flickr intentionally isn't implementing a wanted feature in order for Yahoo to gain more accounts.
Parent
Re:You can select friends and or family only... (Score:5, Informative)
Not completely true. You can give friends and family special "guest pass" urls that allow them to look at non-public photos of your choice without needing to register with flickr/Yahoo.
Linky [flickr.com]
Of course, they can't comment etc. unless they register. They can only view.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Say what? (Score:4, Interesting)
We'll see, though.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
MSN.com/Live does well - they pull around 20% of search results of site I manage. Their ISP venture is still alive and kicking too.
Your right though, it isn't like the Xbox has been a huge success... oh wait...
Re: (Score:3)
"Too many people are using Live Search. MS is abusing their monopoly! Wah!"
"Only x per cent are using Live Search. They should be able to do more, what with their monopoly. They suck! Hah!"
Clowns.
I will tell you why you can write MS off (Score:5, Insightful)
I followed the links you supplied and didn't have to look far at all before I ran into pages that were IE/Windows only. You want to take a guess at how many Flickr customers use an Apple?
Yes MS has a huge share of the desktop, in business it is near absolute, but that means all those millions of machines Apple keeps churning out HAVE TO END UP SOMEWHERE. In fact, I have strong personal evidence that Apples last longer, so that means there are a shitload of people out there on macs. This doesn't even count freaks like me on linux.
Does that matter? Yes, a sharing site, a social site, should just work. In Firefox, in Safari, in opera, on OSX on OS9 on Linux on BSD and yes even windows ALL all the way back to 98.
MS can't do this. Not because of a lack of skill, it just wouldn't occur to them. It simply ain't the way MS operates. They always will introduce some element that excludes large numbers of their own customers, let alone those on other OS'es or who don't use IE.
And that matters, because these sites are about sharing, not about worrying wether your viewer has the right browser/OS or indeed software installed.
Why do you think so many sites now use flash for their video player? Because it is the most reliable way of doing that, why do you think a lot of sites EVEN so still add a hard download link? Because the captures the last percentage of users.
The techies at MS may be capable, but somewhere in the Redmond beast there is someone with veto powers who ALWAYS injects something that kills it. Look at all their attemps with a universal login, they renamed it, redesigned it and it is still a dismall failure, because at no point did MS put the enduser first and not their own corporate interests.
The moment MS becomes capable (not in tech but in business decisions) to support other OS'es then its own, then MS will be succesfull on the web. Perhaps it is changing, silverlight might be a change and I did see a link to a .mov on photosynth. But the apps themselves are windows XP SP2 and Vista only (in fact one says XP only).
Check flickr, you won't be able to move for the mac lovers.
Parent
R&D isn't MS's problem... (Score:2)
xbox is a good example of what MS can do when
a) they're forced to compete
b) they focus on the product instead of the whole product family
l4h
Re: (Score:2)
We have yet to learn if Microsoft can turn a profit without being able to charge monopoly rent.
Re: (Score:2)
However, I see nothing wrong with MS adding more value onto their Live service.
The point you missed in your tirade is this: Microsoft is again off on another front to compete with products which do something not connected to any operating system, though provide services on the internet, core to a business. Microsoft should leave these to companies which focus on them, work with the companies and to function in ways Microsoft may consider beneficial, but leave the burden of the business to those companies. Microsoft is like some octopus which grows arms as it sees each need and has
It's a trap! (Score:2, Troll)
-Grey [silverclipboard.com]
come on MS.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yuck!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Value proposition? (Score:2, Troll)
Re: value proposition (Score:2)
Not flaming, just laughing... (Score:3, Funny)
I was disappointed to find that that's a typo -- it sounded like a great site: "Get off my Second Life lawn, you lousy kids!"
Oh yeah? (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh yeah? What about my iPod, Bill?
-Grey [luminiferous-aether.net]
Buzzword alert (Score:4, Insightful)
Slightly off topic (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone Notice something ....? (Score:5, Insightful)
Google, Yahoo, Linux, Apple
Re: (Score:2, Troll)
So when has their approach been different from that?
From the very first release of the "IBM PC" running DOS, the IBM/Microsoft strategy has been to watch what the flock of independent developers and small companies develops, watch the reaction of "the Market", and when someone develops something that sells, either buy them out or (if the
Re: (Score:2)
Who gives a crap (Score:5, Insightful)
News at eleven (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
If it was *.* they would just be replacing there own stuff, I think they want more
Who wants it? (Score:4, Insightful)
Predictions (Score:2, Insightful)
- It will require/use windows media player rather than flash. Or, even better, use that Silver-somethingorother-thingamajig that nobody has installed or uses.
- There will be 30 seconds of banners/ads before each movie starts
- It will not allow embedding of movies on other sites
- The interface will overuse Ajaxy web 2.0 (TM) technology, slowing down the interface/browser
- DRM will somehow have to be involved, such that even if you could save the stream your
Re: (Score:2)
no, it will probably be touted as a new feature in windows7.
that's almost a given looking at Vista's support of DRM and the fact that the MPAA/RIAA seem to have some sort of deal with MS on the issue. In a few years if things keep up as they
new MicroSoft stock symbol: COPY (Score:4, Funny)
Why does every new product labeled 'competitor'? (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe a company releases a product/service just to make money, not to compete or kill something else. Hell, I have multilple gmail, yahoo, and hotmail email accounts; I don't think of them as competitors (even though they are), they are just services to me. Sometime I buy Coke, sometimes Pepsi. I don't give a damn about the competition between the two.
So here we have the story, "Microsoft Plans Flickr Competitor (or 'Clone' as TFA says)" rather than "Microsoft Plans Online Photo Service" as the headline. Because all we care about is the competition aspect. *yawn*
Re:Why does every new product labeled 'competitor' (Score:3, Insightful)
Washington State (Score:2, Funny)
As with any story involving Lord Sauron of Redmond, I have only one thing to say:
Google is a better company than Microsoft.
the first challenge (Score:2)
v1 opportunity? (Score:2, Interesting)
Seriously though, what will they include in this product that will make people want to switch away from the existing photo sharing sites? As a photographer I'm all for cool new features. But those features are worthless if they don't help me get things done better/quicker and the menu options for them keep moving around with each new release. What is the compelling reason to use
I just can't keep up anymore (Score:2, Interesting)
Me Too !!! (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm going to use something called "Linux" running "Apache" using "HTTP" and "FTP" protocols to do this on something called "co-located servers".
Oh. Wait. I've been doing this since the mid-'90s. Drats. Foiled again...
proactive vs reactive (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:proactive vs reactive (Score:4, Insightful)
On the other hand ... Someone has already mentioned PhotoTours [microsoft.com] and
GroupShot [microsoft.com] in an earlier post, and they really are quite cool.
Do these qualify as proactive ?
My first thought was "Wow, can't wait until someone does an open source version of these that runs on Linux". But if someone did release an open source version of these, would that be reactive ?
I think we are all playing catch up with each other.
Parent
Microsoft's Business Algorithm (Score:4, Funny)
ofoto (Score:2)