Yahoo Pissing on the Competition?

Thomas Hawk has claimed, with IP’s that back him up, that Yahoo! (Owner of flickr) has edited the Wikipedia Entry of Zooomr, a “competing” service, mocking it as an “exact copy” of flickr.

Ouch. Thomas comments:

So today when checking out the latest edits to Zooomr’s Wikipedia entry I noticed that a recent change had been made saying that many of Zooomr’s features, page designs and particular implementations” were “exact copies” of Flickr. When checking the IP address for the change in question 216.145.49.15 it came back through a reverse DNS directory look up as coming from Yahoo Corporate. The same IP address also edited lots of other Yahoo type Wikipedia entries including positive Flickr entries and even Flickr’s Caterina Fake’s personal biography.

While it’s impossible to know for sure who at Yahoo could be editing Zooomr’s Wikipedia entry, it doesn’t sit right with me that a competitor would be doing this at all.

I’d have to agree. Sure they have the right to do it, but having the right and being right are two different things, especially since the accusation of Zooomr being an exact copy of flickr is obviously stupid and untrue. I’ve used both. Zooomr slays flickr, but is missing a few things that would make it perfect:

1. A normal login procedure. Get rid of openid, tpass, and all the other crap, and just implement a login procedure. Don’t pitch me on the utility of one login (myopenid, for example) being universal. It’s clunky and stupid and I use it nowhere aside from Zooomr. Plus, myopenid is a third-party. If they disappear, does that mean I can’t get to my Zooomr account?

2. A bulk uploader. I hear Juploadr 1.1b will be able to upload to Zooomr. Fine with me. I can wait. Juploadr works great on my Mac. And it’s free. And open-source.

3. A way to shift my pictures from flickr to Zooomr. If I could do that, I’d be using Zooomr right now and have 200+ photos in my account.

Honestly, folks, Zooomr really is that good, and I’m not just saying that because I like Thomas. It is readily apparent, though, that Zooomr spent a lot of time figuring out the stuff you want to do with your photos along with the stuff you want to know about them (for example, who’s linking them!). Give it a try at Zooomr.com if you haven’t already. It’s really worth a look. You may even wanna ditch your flickr account ;-)

[tags]flickr, zooomr, yahoo, thomas hawk, web 2.0, wikipedia[/tags]

This entry was posted in Interesting. Bookmark the permalink.
  • Carla

    I am new to this site. I saw it on CNN when the owner tried to get rid of AOL.

    Hopefully someone can help me. I canceled AOL because I was getting 3-4 telephone collection calls a day for someone who didn’t live here in my home. I am new to the state I live in now, and although the regular customer service had all of my information, the collection department in Antigua tended to disregard the fact that I had been a paying customer. Well anyway, I decided to go with Earthlink. Well, I authorized Earthlink to take $51.92 from my checking account. Not only did Earthlink take the $51.92 but also another $30.00 without my consent/authorization. I went to bank to make a sworn statement/affidavit that I did not authorize this and was refunded the $30.00, then I canceled Earthlink just two (2) days after ordering service. Now, Earthlink is trying to make me pay the $30.00 plus another $15.00 I didn’t authorize them to take. Everytime I call, I am talking to someone in India or the Philippines. I cannot straigten this out because no one ever does anything. They say they will reimburse me, but nothing yet. I canceled service within 3 days. Please help with suggestions. How can they keep my $51.92 and then want me to send them another $50.00?
    Thanks,
    Carla

  • Carla

    I am new to this site. I saw it on CNN when the owner tried to get rid of AOL.

    Hopefully someone can help me. I canceled AOL because I was getting 3-4 telephone collection calls a day for someone who didn’t live here in my home. I am new to the state I live in now, and although the regular customer service had all of my information, the collection department in Antigua tended to disregard the fact that I had been a paying customer. Well anyway, I decided to go with Earthlink. Well, I authorized Earthlink to take $51.92 from my checking account. Not only did Earthlink take the $51.92 but also another $30.00 without my consent/authorization. I went to bank to make a sworn statement/affidavit that I did not authorize this and was refunded the $30.00, then I canceled Earthlink just two (2) days after ordering service. Now, Earthlink is trying to make me pay the $30.00 plus another $15.00 I didn’t authorize them to take. Everytime I call, I am talking to someone in India or the Philippines. I cannot straigten this out because no one ever does anything. They say they will reimburse me, but nothing yet. I canceled service within 3 days. Please help with suggestions. How can they keep my $51.92 and then want me to send them another $50.00?
    Thanks,
    Carla