Flickr has introduced several upgrades into mobile site highlighted by a video streaming feature that would let users view their uploaded video contents right onto their mobile phones. According to the Flickr blog, the growing popularity of mobile devices for sharing not only photos but videos as well has prompted them to introduced the new feature. And with the growing popularity of powerful mobile handsets which can handle both photos and video contents, it is but logical for Flickr to add video streaming to its mobile site. Add this to the fact that the Flickr database of user-generated videos is steadily growing as well.
For starters, the Flickr mobile video streaming is available only for the iPhone and iPod Touch, although Flickr promises to have the feature to other mobile handsets soon. If you have the iPhone or iPod Touch, you can immediately check out this feature by simply pointing your Safari browser to m.flickr.com. And when you do check it out, make sure that your device device is connected to a fast Wi-Fi or 3G connection, otherwise you’ll just get frustrated with how slow your videos will be streamed on your iPhone and iPod Touch.
In addition to video streaming, Flickr mobile has also rolled some upgrades to its site, more particularly it now lets you change your privacy settings, find interesting photos and videos from the Flickr universe quickly, comment on and favorite photos, and manage your Flickr contacts, anytime and anywhere you might be. Flickr mobile syncs well with your Flickr web account, so I would to admit that this is definitely a nice and useful feature.
Lastly, the new Flickr mobile site also made emailing photos you’ve taken using your mobile phone’s camera easier.
With the video uploading feature of Flickr already in place, and video streaming just introduced it wouldn’t be a long time before Flickr will establish itself as a worthy rival of YouTube. Or for those already getting tired of the nuances of YouTube as it struggles to find ways of improving its services and eventually bring revenue to Google, Flickr’s video site could be a good alternative.
