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Yahoo! Photos

URL	http://photos.yahoo.com/ (Redirects to flickr)
Commercial?	Yes
Type of site	Photo sharing
Owner	Yahoo!
Current status	Closed indefinetly

Yahoo! Photos is a defunct photo sharing service of Yahoo!, designed specifically for Yahoo! users.

The service had unlimited storage for photos, but it was required that photos have the jpeg/jpg extension. Users create individual photo albums, categorize their photos and place them in the corresponding albums. Users were also able to set access of their albums by publishing them for the viewing pleasure of everyone, disabling access, or marking them as private folders for their own viewing. In an effort to make it simpler and more efficient, Yahoo had an uploader tool to drag and drop the pictures from one's computer to Yahoo! Photos web page. In March 2005 Yahoo! purchased another photo sharing site, Flickr, and in May 2007 announced that Yahoo! Photos would be closed down on Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 9 p.m. PDT.

Features

• Photos on a television for persons using newly upgraded software in the TiVo Series2 setup box¹.
• Users are permitted to batch their pictures and customize folders with stationery, and access features like ordering prints, creating books, calendar and personal stamps.
• Photos can be shared with Yahoo! 360° friends, appear on My Yahoo! pages, be shown via Yahoo! Messenger or be displayed on one's desktop with Yahoo! Widgets.
• Yahoo Photos opened an internal API which allows a partner to access photo storage and work with customer’s photos with permission.
• Yahoo! Backupr is one of these services which allows albums to be burned as a CD or a DVD with customizable CD/DVD labels and CD/DVD case print materials.

Cancelled version

In 2006, a new version of Yahoo! Photos, as well as a public API, was released for some users. However, the new version was not made public.

Shut down of Yahoo! Photos

On the 16th June, 2007, Yahoo! Photos issued a press release stating that it would be terminating September 20, 2007 in order to focus their efforts on Flickr.

Yahoo! Photos has proposed a number of alternatives for customers who want to move their photos to other services.

More information about the closure can be seen at Yahoo! Photo's Knowledge Base Article.

Several independent users have derived alternative solutions for migration of their photographs uploaded at Yahoo! Photos, namely: Download Hi Resolution Yahoo! Photos by Rohit Sud, Download Yahoo! Photos by Kent Brewster, and Yahoo! Photos Grabber by Yandao.com

History

• March, 2000: Yahoo! Photos launched.

• March 29th, 2005: Yahoo buys Flickr, which is an online community to share and discuss personal photos and montages.

• January 14th, 2007: Yahoo! Photos updated the site with new features, including free full-resolution downloads from ISPs that have partnerships with Yahoo.[1]

• May 3rd, 2007: An informal announcement was made that Yahoo! Photo was going to shutdown. USA Today reports:

"Yahoo Photos will be shut down by the fall. Users will be directed over a three-month period to transfer their images to Flickr or other photo sites such as Multiply, Shutterfly, Kodak Gallery, Snapfish or Photobucket. Yahoo says it will make the transition easy, with a one-click transfer" process."[2]

• June, 2007: Yahoo! photos is no longer accepting new accounts or allowing users to upload photos
• September 20, 2007: Yahoo! Photos shuts down. (October 18 for India Users, October 19th for Australian users) Users can still follow a link to transfer their photos to one of five providers automatically: Flickr, Shutterfly, Photobucket, Snapfish, or Kodak Gallery.
• October 18-19th, 2007: Yahoo! Photos will shut down for Indian and Australian users and all photos and accounts will be deleted.
• As of September 25th, 2007: Yahoo photos was still fully functional for user upload and viewing.

See also

• Image hosting service
• Photo sharing
• Flickr

References

External links

• Yahoo! Photos website