If you haven’t noticed already, Facebook announced they would be supporting higher resolution photos, easier tagging and a better photo viewer at the end of last month. The changes would be rolled out over the following few weeks, so you likely already have these features.
While the improvements are greatly appreciated from many, they aren’t exactly at the core of today’s discussion. With the massive number of Facebook users, I’m very curious as to how this change will affect other photo storage and sharing services such as Flickr, Picasa and SmugMug. What do you think?
Facebook’s Photo Improvements
Facebook announced they would be increasing the maximum allowed photos from 720 pixels to 2048 pixels at their widest edge. That’s an eight fold increase! In addition to higher resolution photos, they’re adding a better photo viewer, easier photo uploading and tagging.
Size Increase
I used to be frustrated with the photo limitations of Facebook as they did a poor job of presenting my high resolution DSLR photos. Over time I was okay with them as anyone interested in viewing the full sized images could just visit my photo gallery, provided my SmugMug, and likely see many more of the photos I was proud of.
Effects on Photo Services
With these improvements, Facebook is effectively eliminating the need for a large number of Facebook users to use a secondary service dedicated to their photos. Facebook is now more of an “all-in-one” solution. While more advanced photography enthusiasts certainly won’t be satisfied with these improvements, it covers the needs of most of the day to day users uploading photos from their cell phones, point & shoot cameras and other low resolution sources.
Larger Photo Viewer
Many of the popular online photo gallery services require a fee, even if just a small one, but how many casual “shooters” do you think will be willing to pay for something they can get for free by simply using Facebook? Of course, many of those casual “shooters” are likely already Facebook users which gives them even more incentive not to add another service to their “workflow”.
While the megapixel race isn’t exactly over, it’s close enough. So we’re not likely going to see much more of an increasing need for higher resolution storage options, except maybe for the more serious photographers. What features will services like Flickr need to implement in order to retain those casual “shooters”? Or maybe as Facebook continues to add features like this, it will create a greater separation between casual “shooters” and those that are more serious about photography? The more serious photographers of course being nearly the only ones using the more expensive and feature rich services like SmugMug.
What do you think? How will these improvements affect other services like Flickr, Picasa and SmugMug?
While we’re on the topic of online photo storage and sharing apps, be sure to share the app you use by voting in our weekly poll. Thanks!