Flickery, Mac based Flickr client: denied!
The Mac world was abuzz at the release of Flickery for the Mac, a client to allow Mac users to easily upload and edit photos to popular photo site Flickr. Flickery quickly found out why it isn’t wise to launch and application that is completely dependent on another application’s API when Flickr shut them down shortly after the launch.
Flickery’s main problem was one of laziness. The company built a Flickr type photo client that offered a replacement for Flickr’s own desktop application and web site, using the Flickr servers and storage. Frankly, the company should have known that Flickr would shut down what was essentially a parasite draining their system resources.
Is Flickery a cool application? Yes it is. It offers a sleek, minimalist way to see and manipulate your photos using the Flickr engine and servers. Is it a necessary application? No, it isn’t. Flickr already offers its own desktop client with a minimalist user interface, and ways to see just the photos on its site.
Flickery is falling victim to the same problem plaguing other third party application programs that build onto the backbone of sites like Twitter and Flickr – dependency on the scalability of a system that is not under their control. The company would have been better armed for success if they built their own server backbone and created a stand alone application that both competed with and integrated Flickr, offering the best of both worlds.
Related Posts:
