In my effort to learn about as many tools as I can, especially before school starts again in September, I’ve taken on trying out Web 2.0 apps I’ve never tried before. The second part of this experiment will be to write about the experience, here.
Today I decided to finally give in and set up my Flickr account. I was tempted to try Picasa, since I already have a Google account and wasn’t too keen on setting up yet ANOTHER account. I also wasn’t keen on giving in to Flickr’s right to use my pictures without my consent – and to even changing them.
Now, I suppose I should go and find that part of the ToS myself, since I only know that from what a couple of other people have said. But those folks are pretty in-the-know, so I have no reason to not believe them and not time to comb through the Toss.
But give in I did, and I’ll just be judicious at first about what I put up there. I won’t put up anything they might want to steal and hack up for their own evil purposes! LOL
Anyway, I did not find the sign up process as seamless as I have other products. I tried to use my usual brand name, sorry.afk. It told me the name was in use, so I figured that maybe I’d already set up an account. Well, when I went to try and get my password, it told me that the sorry.afk did not exist. So, which is it – does it or doesn’t it? Anyway, I had to give in and use sorryafk@yahoo.com.
Then, after getting that, I had to set up a DIFFERENT sign in for Flickr. Why can’t they be like Google and just give me one sign in for everything! [snort] It’s one of the things I like most about Google, single sign in. The good new on this is that I COULD use sorry.afk for this, so my Flickr account name is sorry.afk.
I spent the rest of the time trying to get my cell phone set up to send pictures to Flickr directly from there, without having to email them. There were a few choices listed, I started looking into ShoZu and also using M.Flickr.com. I’ll test both of those and see how it goes.
I am sure for many of you this is old hat – you’ve had your Flickr accounts for a long time and you’re probably wondering why on earth I’m so late to the game and even talking about this. For many others, they are so overwhelmed by these “web” things that they just never try them. Today’s exercise is for you, if you’re in that group.
Do you have any positive or negative experiences with Flickr? Any tips you think are important? Any apps you use from your phone or your computer to make uploading easier? Any tips for staying organized within Flickr and/or helping to make the Flickr experience better?
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3 comments:
Hey honey! I use Flickr as a place to park my pics when I need a URL. If I want to post a pic on someone's Facebook Wall for instance, I use "share link", put in the URL for the pic and it shows up on their wall. I've also used it when I want to link a pic on my blog without actually posting the pic on my blog (the red text hotlinks on my Blogger Blog). Since I'm an exhibitionist (haha) it never really bothered me that they could use my pics. I use Picasa as an editing tool because I like it's use of "glow effect" to make me look younger. It was free with some bundle of downloaded something or other (oh, it was Yahoo Widgets) and I kept it.
I chose Flickr as an easy way to share wedding pics with friends and family. Since I already knew users I had good feedback on it's usability and stability. I also use it for hosting images for linking, and I really like the Sets & Collections features, that let me organize my pics thematically (or however I want). The tag cloud is also a fun tool. I just recently became aware of Picasa when a friend set up an account, but I don't see myself moving over unless for a good reason at this point (with over 2k pics now hosted).
E, I hear ya about the 2K pix. I'm trying to figure this all out BEFORE I make that kind of investment.
It seems to me that Flickr is like Twitter, flaws and warts, its still the best of breed so you tolerate certain things.
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