Flickr dumps despised Yahoo login system
Dropping Yahoo email addresses is the top requested Flickr change, Flickr's new owner SmugMug says.
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Flickr is dumping its old Yahoo login system so you won't have to use a Yahoo login anymore to use the photo-sharing site.
Photo-sharing site Flickr has severed a major tie to its previous owner by ditching the old Yahoo login system, a move that will let millions of members switch their accounts to new email addresses.
It's been difficult for Flickr's new owner, SmugMug, to step away from Yahoo. In an effort to improve performance and reliability, SmugMug also has been moving data from Yahoo's data centers to Amazon Web Services computing foundation. But among those changes, an independent login system was "easily the most requested by our members," Chief Executive Don MacAskill said in a February forum post.
Now it's here -- though only arriving gradually, according to a Monday announcement.
"Due to the massive number of account holders at Flickr, this process will take a little time, but over the next few weeks, we'll introduce more and more Flickr members to our new login," Flickr said in a blog post.
Yahoo, now owned by Verizon, was an internet pioneer that helped popularize services like web-based email. But it's lost much of is influence, and particularly after a massive data breach affecting all its 3 billion million accounts, plenty of people no longer feel any need to maintain their Yahoo accounts.
To change away from your Yahoo email address, you'll have to wait for the Flickr invitation.
When you get it, you'll be able to choose either your Yahoo or the primary contact email address you've designated for Flickr. Later, Flickr will let you pick a new email.