Yahoo: We're listening to user feedback about Flickr revamp
Following a barrage of negative comments about changes to its Flickr site, Yahoo says it's listening -- and also "actively measuring flickr.com" so it can fine-tune things properly.
Yahoo is clearly aware that many Flickr users are unhappy about the photo-sharing site's new look and layout.
On Monday, Yahoo revamped Flickr with a host of changes, including a larger photo layout, new home page and photo stream page, and 1TB of free storage space per person. But Flickr users quickly expressed their unhappiness over the changes. A slew of people chimed in on the site's help forum to give the new look a thumb's down and pleading for a return to the old style.
Users are always thrown by major changes to their favorite Web sites. But in this case, the negative responses have been overwhelming, putting Yahoo in a quandary. At the very least, the company admits that it's listening to all the feedback, as per the following statement sent to CNET on Wednesday:
Flickr users are the backbone of our community. We deeply value how much they care about Flickr and are constantly engaging with them. This week, Flickr made some big announcements including a new Android phone/tablet app, a new web experience, and 1 terabyte of free space for all of our users. We recognize that this is a lot of change and are listening to all of the community feedback that we're getting. Additionally, we're actively measuring flickr.com so we can fine tune the site's performance and continuously make improvements.
Here's what Yahoo had said earlier this week on the Flickr help forum directly responding to angry users:
Hello again everyone. We've made some big, giant changes to the site, and it will take some getting used to. We are listening, and value what you all have to say.
We are also committed to making sure the new pages are working properly, and will continue to make improvements as we hear more from you. Please do your part to make sure that people coming to the Forum for help or to report bugs and site issues get a chance to be heard.
For those of you who have reported bugs or other usability concerns already, we'll be working over the following days to take stock of ongoing issues and respond when possible.
Finally, it should also go without saying that personal attacks against Staff or other users will not be tolerated, and may prevent your ability to take part in discussion here in the Help Forum.
Yahoo's response indicates that it could easily tweak the site further based on the user feedback. That's likely to happen especially if usage of the site drops. As Yahoo itself acknowledged, all of these changes in one shot can be tough to swallow. So, the company may have to dial back a bit if it expects to mollify all those unhappy users.