Pour one out for Flickr, friends. It’s losing a couple of its features. The photo-sharing site, founded in 2004, acquired by Yahoo in 2005, and now taken under Verizon’s wing, has announced that it is shuttering its Wall Art print service, and also offloading its photo book functionality. In an email sent to users, the service noted, “We are transitioning our photo book offering to Blurb and shutting down our wall art offering.”
But wait, you say, what is Blurb? Founded in 2005, the San Francisco-based self-publishing platform allows anyone to create their own publications, as well as promote and publish them. And now, you can also use Blurb to make your own personal photo album. While the company previously maintained a relationship with Flickr via an API, it’s now taking over that one Flickr feature altogether.
“Beginning October 16, 2017 you will be able to connect your Flickr account to Blurb’s online photo book-making tool,” Flickr told users in its email. “If you are a Flickr Pro member, you will get $35 toward your first Blurb order and $35 toward another order when you renew (with minimum purchase of $70).”
For those looking to make wall art, however, there’s less promising news. In 2014, Flickr began allowing users to take their photos and transform them into wall art. This feature was later offered to professional photographers as well, giving them the opportunity to sell their work to other users. If you’re in the process of creating a wall-ready print, the company notes that you’ll have until December 1, 2017 to do so. Anything beyond that time frame will no longer work.
As Flickr explained, “You have until December 1, 2017 to complete any in-progress wall art or photo book orders that you have not purchased. After December 1, 2017, you will not be able to access the Flickr wall art tool or the Flickr photo book tool and your progress will be lost. If you want to print your old order history, you will need to go to your Flickr Wallet before December 1, 2017. After December 1, 2017, we will remove the wall art and photo book order history. You can manage your new orders on Blurb’s website.”
It’s unclear as to just how successful or widely used either of these features are, and as TechCrunch noted, folks in Flickr’s user forums don’t seem too perturbed by the change. But if you just so happen to be someone deeply affected by this announcement, you’d best get a move on your photo books and wall art.
