Yahoo Photos will close to promote Flickr

Yahoo Inc. is planning to stop Yahoo Photos, a first-generation photo storage site, and recommends users switch to Yahoo's Web 2.0 photo-sharing site, Flickr, a Yahoo official said Thursday.

According to Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield, in June, the rollover of Yahoo Photos subscribers across the globe will receive lots of announcements, including a note to upgrade. Go to Yahoo's Flickr service or switch to other online photo hosting services.

Yahoo also offers customers the option to transfer their photos to multiple photo-gallery sites that compete with Flickr when Yahoo Photos users receive notifications of service stops next month.

Photo: Yahoo Photos Mr. Stewart also said these sites include PhotoBucket - one of the most popular photo sharing services among social network users like News Corp.'s MySpace. - or traditional photo storage and printing site like Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly Inc. or Snapfish.

" Of course Flickr will be advertised first, " Stewart said, adding that the plan offers users more choices.

The move follows the explosive growth of PhotoBucket, an independent photo-hosting site based in Palo Alto, California. From the fourth quarter of last year until last month, the market share of this site in the US alone accounted for 40%, according to Hitwise Inc .

At the same time, Yahoo Photos dropped by two thirds of the market, down to only 5.8% in the US market. Meanwhile, Flickr, which grew by 3.7%, accounted for 4.5% of the market, according to Hitwise Web in the US.

Yahoo continues to support both Photos and Flickr for the past 2 years, serving different customers of these two sites.

Yahoo Photos is a more traditional photo site, saving all family photos. Meanwhile, Flickr attracts a fan base of passionate professional or amateur photographers who use the site to share digital photos online, and for those who want to print a picture. Larger image after shooting.

According to comScore data, provided by Yahoo a year ago, Yahoo Photos has 30 million subscribers, uploading 2 billion photos as of June 2006.

In contrast, PhotoBucket increased to 32 million users in 2006, while there were only 12 million users in 2005. The site also aims to have 62 million users by the end of 2007, overseeing it. PhotoBucket executive and co-founder Alex Welch said in a recent interview.

Butterfield and co-founder Caterina Fake, his wife, sold Flickr to Yahoo in 2005. Butterfield is currently a product manager at Yahoo.

Ph