YouTube and Google Video may have some competition. Flickr Video has been largely unnoticed, overshadowed by the popular Flickr photo sharing site. Flickr Video was until recently limited to the use of Flickr PRO account holders, but now Yahoo is rolling out some new features for Flickr Video in the hopes of expanding sue of and bringing attention to the service. Flickr Video is now open to free Flickr members. Free members can upload two videos per month. The 90 seconds video time limit or the not bigger than 150MB video size is still in effect, however.
Flickr Video is also rolling out HD Video upload capabilities to compete with YouTube’s HD video capability. HD video is uploadable by paid members, but free members can participate in viewing these HD videos. The restriction probably has something to do with server issues as HD Videos take up bigger server space than regular quality videos.
Another new feature is Flickr Clock, which is like a timeline for videos. Flickr video uploaders can upload their videos and the service will categorize and display these videos based on the time they were taken. The objective is to capture different happenings across the globe at a specific time period. The Flickr Clock works out as a pretty nifty visualization tool.
The Flickr blog also mentioned something about removing the set limit for free members, but it is not clear if it is the limit for photo sets or video sets. With the new platform, Flickr will probably become more utilized by Flickr fans, but YouTube is not likely to be in any danger.
Tags: Flickr video, photo sharing, YouTube