There was some major news from Flickr today on the inclusion of its three billionth photograph.

That’s incredibly impressive but it got me thinking about how Flickr might have been different if Yahoo hadn’t snapped up the company for a reported $40-million in 2005. Would Flickr be any different than it is today?

It’s obviously impossible to determine either way but I think Flickr would have been a much more interesting, innovative and progressive company. For one, I think Flickr would have embraced video much earlier as opposed to its dip-a-toe-in-the-water entry earlier this year. It’s not to suggest Flickr would have been YouTube but Flickr could have been much more than a photo-sharing service.

I think we would have seen a lot more cool projects such as shape data, which Flickr unveiled last week. If you haven’t check out what Flickr did reverse-geocoding, you should check it out, especially if you’re interested in geotagging and location-based services.

I think Flickr would also have been more ambitious in terms of offering photo-editing services. Until it struck a deal with Picnik.com earlier this year, the photo-editing tool-set was pretty rudimentary.

And, finally, I think Flickr would have been more aggressive and innovation about making money while still being true to itself and its large community. Things like premium and value-add services, third-party partnerships and – yes, I’ll say it – more advertising might have been explored more enthusiastically.

That said, Flickr has done incredibly well within the Yahoo empire. Perhaps the best part is Yahoo hasn’t ruined Flickr by trying to make Flickr something it isn’t.

Technorati Tags: flickr, yahoo

With the “r” word (recession) slowly going from a whisper to a quiet roar, the spending habits of consumers are going to quickly change.

If people are going to make purchases, many of them will be bargain-hunting – waiting for increasingly anxious retailers to have sales, or live without something new until they can afford it or their existing computer, jeans, car, etc. no longer works.

Amid this consumer landscape sits Craigslist, which has supplanted eBay as the leading place online to find bargains. If consumers are going to be penny-pinching, Craigslist will be the place to do it. On Craigslist, the bargain is still very much alive and well if you’re willing to do a little work such as picking up your purchase as opposed to have it mailed to you.

For example, hockey equipment – a particular interest of mine – can be purchase for 75% below retail prices. For the most part, it’s relatively new equipment purchased by people who thought they were going to be playing but can’t anymore, or people who just want to sell extra equipment.

If the recession takes hold and the consumer orgy that has thrived for the past decade comes to an abrupt end, Craiglist is poised to thrive. You’ll have motivated buyers looking to save cash, and motivated sellers looking to “monetize” stuff they no longer want/need.

More: Other online companies that could benefit from the recession are:

- Kijiji, whose growth seems to have plateaued in the U.S.; Priceline, Hotwire.com, Skype and Paypal.com. It is interesting that Kijiji, Skype and Paypal are owned by eBay so perhaps this post should have been eBay will thrive during a recession.

Technorati Tags: craigslist, recession

The Wall St. Journal is reporting that Yahoo is poised for eliminate more than 1,000 jobs as it battles to remain viable amid fierce competition and a tumultuous economic landscape.

That’s it: 1,000 positions?

Not to be disrespectful or dismissive about the idea of 1,000 people losing their jobs but Yahoo is being timid when it needs to be bold. It’s nibbling at the edges right than take a big strategic bite, which seems strange given Jerry Yang’s infamous 100 Days Promise.

While reducing $100-million of operating senses will gain some approval, what Yahoo really needs to do is determine what it wants to be. This is a particularly urgent mandate given it will more difficult to hide assets that are performing well or strategically valuable when economic times are tough.

One area that Yahoo has yet to address is its huge portfolio of online services, including the many startups it has acquired in recent years (Zimbra, Blue Lithium, Maven Networks, Right Media, Flickr, del.ico.us, MyBlogLog, etc.)

In many respects, Yahoo is trying to be all things to all people but it means a scattered focus. Although this is far from the best time to be pruning assets, Yahoo needs to look at whether some businesses need to be closed or sold. Yahoo operates a vast empire so there must be some room for a more focused approach.

Update: Yahoo is embracing the “open” movement as we move to – shudder – “Web 3.0″ but it strikes me as more of a distraction than being focused.

Technorati Tags: yahoo

It used to be that if you didn’t have a .com domain, you pretty much doomed. It was the global standard when establishing a presence on the Web.

It is becoming increasingly apparent, however, that having a .com domain is becoming less important. Part of it has to do with the fact it’s so difficult to come up with a half-decent .com domain, which forces companies to invent silly monikers. The other reality is it’s now possible to not have a .com domain without missing a beat.

This move away from .com has been evident with a wave a new startups that have emerged in recent months. For example, there’s:

- identi.ca (.ca is Canada’s top-level domain)

- Cli.gs (the domain for the Sandwich Islands off the southern tip of South America)

- Bit.ly and – Present.ly (.ly is Libya’s domain name)

- Chi.mp (the domain for Northern Mariana Islands)

- Nouri.sh (the domain for the Island of Saint Helena)

With little space left in the .com market, creativity has literally become the mother of invention. It may take some time before everyone becomes accustomed to not using a .com domain but eventually people will stop thinking about it when using .mp or .ly.

Update: There’s a new service called Domai.nr that is trying to leverage the idea you can use different domains.

Technorati Tags: domain names

We live in a world of instant-gratification and instant communication.

We want things and we want them now. We want to communicate with people and we want to communicate instantaneously and continually.

One of the major challenges within the always-on, always accessible world is the belief that if someone is able to contact you, you’re obligated to get back to them as soon as possible. Rather than think, breathe and reflect, the default is respond ASAP.

Why is that? Why do we feel compelled to reply before really thinking through exactly what you want to say? Often, digital conversations can become complicated and convoluted because not enough thought goes into what should/needs to be said.

Think, for example, how long you take before responding to an e-mail on your Blackberry. Chances are most people probably spend, at most, a minute or two before pounding out a reply even though you could have waited another 30 minutes or even three hours to put together a better answer.

And, often, these responses are done even though you may be in the middle of a conversation or dinner or a round of golf.

What does this happen? What can’t people wait to respond?

Perhaps the best approach is walking away from the keyboard and/or resisting the urge to hit the reply button as soon as you can. It’s difficult but in many cases, a good exercise to pursue.

For the first part of my “Think, Breathe” series, click here.

More thoughts: I probably should have added Twitter as a symptom of our quick reply digital culture given it’s all the rage these days.

As well, I’ve registered www.thinkbreathe.com. Not sure exactly what I’ll do with it but playing around with the idea of making it a places for tips and tools on how to deal with digital overload. Any thoughts?

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