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2013

Yahoo Combs Through Flickr Creative Commons Images To Search

January 14, 2013 0

Sunnyvale, California — In a fresh bit to try and tempt users away from the sheen radiance of Google, Yahoo, over the weekend announced on its Search blog and Twitter account that it has–at long last–integrated Flickr search results into Yahoo Image Search results on the Web, tablets and mobile phones.

As Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer effectively continues to use her Google expertise to gradually tweak and ameliorate the overall Yahoo experience, a clearer picture of the company’s new strategy is slowly coming into focus.

The latest change introduced this week by Yahoo is a modification of its search engine functions that will now allow users to easily find photos from Flickr that are available for re-use or re-posting under Creative Commons terms.

Going forward, when users keyed in a search term into Yahoo’s main image search engine they have the option of selecting a “Labeled for Reuse” filter that will only display images Flickr users have indicated are available under various types of Creative Commons attribution licenses. Hovering over any thumbnail turns up details about the photo, including the photographer’s name.

Moreover, Yahoo noted that “tens of millions of photos are now yours to search and share”. For the record, Flickr saw its 5 billionth photo uploaded all the way back in September 2012, but obviously not all of them can be re-used without explicit permission of the uploader.

In addition, for years the Creative Commons attribution license option has allowed visitors to reuse Flickr images by simply giving credit to the photographer, a prized feature that has helped to grow the popularity of Flickr as other photo sites have fallen by the wayside.

On the other hand, another excellent attribute of the new Yahoo search feature is the ability to discover the names of the photographers within Yahoo’s search results field by simply clicking a tiny “i” icon shown on the corner of all of “Labeled for Reuse” images. The reusable images also include a link back to the photographer’s original Flickr photo stream, as well as a link to a detailed explanation of exactly what kind of Creative Commons license under which the image is offered. The new Yahoo images search feature is also optimized for tablets and mobile devices.

Yahoo, which acquired the magnificent photo-sharing site in 2005 and slowly but surely ground it down into mediocrity. But now, by incorporating this simple function into its search system Yahoo not only seamlessly merges one of its most popular products into its main landing page, but also gives those who may have stopped using Yahoo as a search tool another reason to give the company’s once popular search engine another try.