With the news of Microsoft possibly buying Yahoo! spreading around the internet, I’ve been hearing doom-and-gloom from people pretty consistently regarding their Flickr accounts. Left and right I see people lamenting that they’d JUST paid for another year, but now wish they hadn’t because Microsoft is going to ruin Flickr.
To long-time Flickrers, this is nothing new. Yahoo! “ruined” Flickr a couple years ago, yet it is still going strong. I’m not sure how many of the complainers are pre-Yahoo! users, but their argument is pretty flimsy. “Oh no! A big evil company is buying the photo site I love from… another big evil company?” If you’re fine with using a cool little photo site that’s been co-opted by Yahoo! to make as much money off it as possible (by doing sleazy things like using its users’s‘s photos in advertisements without asking), then you really have no reason to worry if some other company then wants to start making money off your stuff instead.
Look, I’m as anti-Microsoft as the next guy (OK, probably a lot more), but do I think they’re going “ruin” Flickr more than Yahoo! already did? No way. So quit yer bitchin’. Chances are you already use Google Mail, Google Maps, Google IM, Google Documents, Google Analytics and Google Prostate Check and fully intend to buy a Google Phone as soon as they come out, so why all the worry about Microsoft getting into the mix? If Google bought Flickr the entire blogosphere would cave in upon itself under the strain of a bajillion bloggers rejoicing in unity, sending waves of trackbacks back and forth, obliterating Technorati’s servers.
I don’t know how to end this post.
