5 posts tagged “yahoo!”
New documents suggest that apparently Yahoo! knew very well what Wang Xiaoning was investigated for. Those documents also tell that the data provided by Yahoo!'s office in Beijing was directly used as evidence to convict Wang.
http://www.duihua.org/2007/07/more-evidence-emerges-on-yahoos-role-in.html
On my quest to get away from Yahoo!, I've advanced and hereby present an updated view. On a sidenote, since I've also been a heavy del.icio.us user, I have almost finished migrating all my bookmarks and activities to ma.gnolia.
23hq
Is off my personal list because I didn't receive any free coupons I just don't like using the site. I've been using the site to cross-post pictures from my cellphone all along and probably continue to do so since I will leave Flickr sooner or later. In some ways 23hq is very flickr like - in too many ways it sure lacks the activity, and someone should make it look good. Bummer.
Ipernity
Interesting, and still too much for me. But I guess I could live with it.
Sometimes it's also in French - geesh. ;-) I also asked them about an API - and there is none. At least no one replied to my question - what the f... Just that they had not discussed anything with Flickr, which is not what I had not asked for.
Sidenote, What is it with support queries and so on? I feel like people do not like to admit they don't offer a feature, yet they rather say "we are working on it" and sometimes nothing at all. I am not just talking about Ipernity here, also about Flickr and ma.gnolia for example. I know people are sometimes ungrateful - you roll-out x, they ask for y. But every one of those websites wants to be the nextz social whatever and drools over all my user contributed content, yet I don't even get a personalized response in return?
All in all, Ipernity really offers the most complete package - if you are looking for it all! Also in terms of stableness, it gives you the best impression from all candidates (though 23hq and Smugmug were never flacky either). I didn't have a chance yet to really review the TOS, and they also lack the API.
Zappr
Zappr is new on my list. I just found it last night. First off - I do like any plattform where my username ain't taken. So I do like Zappr. However, there's also too many things missing.
Weirdness - the image was uploaded though. Then I couldn't figure out what the difference between images and photos is. There also seems to be zero activity, no bulk uploader, API? The code you can grab from them if you want to put an image on the blog always contains an annoying amount of inline CSS and a notice where the image is hosted.Error: The process cannot access the file 'D:\web_ToendaZappr\WebSite\/Temp/6c649b8a-cf25-49c9-ad64-9bbeb6064462_org.jpg' because it is being used by another process.
Last but not least Zappr is a service build on Windows (ASP) and uses FAMFAMFAM icons, but doesn't give credit anywhere. (Flickr even credits for ideas and inspiration. ;-)) Boo!
Sevenload
Sevenload is also new, and only in German. I won't use them because a) they don't allow certain content (political, etc.) and then it's primarily German. So even though Germany is one of the biggest countries in central Europe and even though German-speaking are also Austria, Switzerland and Lichtenstein I don't see the diversity. I like to look at pictures from Brazil. I also enjoy receiving comments from people from Japan. You see what I mean.
Sevenload also lacks the API to make it tasty. And f... embedding videos, HTML is so Web 1.0.
Zooomr and Smugmug
Right now I am pondering between Zooomr and Smugmug. They are pretty equal. Smugmug looks like the more professional of the two, Zooomr has the community part, also looks shiney and sometimes is a bitch to navigate - but yeah, the guys seem to be nice so I cut them some slack for all that's not yet working or missing.
I feel like Smugmug could open up a bit. They have this very professional attitude but a couple amateurs to stirr things up wouldn't hurt.
Final thoughts!
All in all - I think I'll renew my account with Flickr in July. Just to get something of my back. And then I'll work on migrating to another service. Whatever it may be. If anyone has more to add - please comment.
In general, people interested in migrating to wherever should look into the migratr over at Calling Shotgun.
To be continued.
For a few days this entire issue about Flickr censoring German users has been around, and even though I don't seem to be affected - because I use my Yahoo! account back from when I lived the U.S. - I thought it's time to move on and find another backup and playground for my snapshots.
I am not really sure if you can blame Flickr for this mess - yeah, they are a business. Yeah, they want to protect their employees. And yeah, they belong to the master of all double standards, Yahoo! Inc..
So anyway, for sure I wish Flickr was more open in this entire discussion, but even though the thread on the forum is probably the most active in Flickr history, the staff decided not to disclose any more information which would explain the situation. I sure don't understand what made them impose those filters on their German userbase, so most people are left speculating and there is no update in sight.
And to extend this - you may call me pathetic -, I reactivated my ma.gnolia today to move away from del.icio.us as well. I never owned Yahoo! mail. And since I only used upcoming.org to confirm going to a Flickr party - well I just don't have to look for an alternative there.
So far the easy stuff, finding a Flickr substitute is not as easy as moving my bookmarks. In fact, I think I will extend my pro account in July because I rely on it far too much in terms of backup and so on. I also made so many valueable contacts on Flickr and would really miss browsing their photostream.
So anyway, I will most likely stop posting to Flickr once I found an alternative, but until then - here is a list.
Alternatives
http://smugmug.com
Many, many features. API, the people running it seem to be very professional. Photo presentation looks slick, but it lacks community.
http://23hq.com
A Flickr clone, almost an identical twin. I just wish it would look less monotonous. The colors really suck.
http://zooomr.com
Zooomr is a tough one. Yeah, it's pretty slick too, but it has a Myspace touch, just not the Myspace crap look. Every now and then I run into dead links on their website and essential features like "password recovery" do not exist, which really is a pitty.
The funny thing is, after looking for my password for too long, I sent the CEO of Zooomr (Thomas Hawk) a message on Flickr and he reset my password this morning. Personally, I find it pretty amusing that I could only get in touch with Zooomr on their competitor's website - Zoomr's contact form does not work and comments on the Zooomr blog did not catch their attention.
All in all, of course I am glad that he reset my password. I know that Zooomr is a two-man-show, but I just don't know if my pictures will vanish by tomorrow if they screw up or something. I just hope they won't.
http://ipernity.com
Ipernity really doesn't look bad, but I think it's way too much for me. I wish it would focus on pictures and not so much on sharing everything and a whole lot more. Rumour has it, that Ipernity has an API, but I couldn't find it yet. Ipernity also faces the Zooomr problem - pages missing, and sometimes suddenly it's French, and so on.
Those didn't do it for me
http://www.zenfolio.com/
Nothing to add. They just don't do it for me.
http://webshots.com
CNET owned Webshots is said to censor way more than Flickr.
http://www.photobucket.com/
I already don't like how they whore out their services to Myspace and Facebook. Also - way to Web 1.0. ;-)
In Re: Dear Flickrsphere I posted a while ago why I didn't want my Flickr account to be merged with the rest of Yahoo! - and here is more on the "why".
According to marketwatch, the wife of Xiaoning - a Chinese dissident, jailed, currently serving a 10 year sentence in a forced-labour camp - sued Yahoo! accusing them of complicity in jailing Xiaoning and in 60 other cases.
The information that Yahoo ultimately turned over to the government led to the arrest, prosecution, jailing and in some cases torture of about 60 people who used the Internet to discuss democracy and free-speech rights, according to the suit.
I am all interested in hearing the excuses - "But we had to in order to do busines in China." or "Sorry, we just wanted to make a lot of money.".
[via]
I read this blog post entitled Dear Flicksphere today. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to comment. So here is my reply.
Getting a Yahoo!-ID is not really the issue for me. For example, I signed up today to evaluate the "new" Yahoo! webmail (for work) and opened the account in a matter of minutes - that includes the email confirmation. I am also sure that I won't hit the 3,000 contact limit any time soon. I am also not concerned about the 75 tags per picture. So be it.
In the beginning I paid three years for Flickr up front, and then Yahoo! bought Flickr. And no, I did not like that my money goes to Yahoo! but I had already spent it.
Now I get sucked into Yahoo! even further. I do not want that because from an ethical point of view what they do is just wrong. They proclaim Web2 freedom and on the other hand they censor search results and give out customer info in China. Because some people are critical towards a non-democratic government and happen to use a Yahoo! mail account for their emailing.
That's wrong.
