Flickr has had an iPhone app for more than two years.

The new Android app appears to offer several features not available on the iPhone version — including filters to help edit photos before publishing, and additional sharing options. The Android app has been described as taking “a few cues from Instagram,” which is also expected to launch its first Android app soon.

Flickr’s Android app is currently available is close to three dozen countries, which are listed on Flickr’s help pages.

Flickr Photo Sessions

Flickr also announced a new feature called Photo Sessions that lets multiple users browse the same photos simultaneously. Think of it, perhaps, as a modern version of sitting around looking at vacation slides together.

Photo sessions can be started from any photostream or photoi set that has sharing options turned on — look for the new “Start a Photo Session” in the Sharing options menu. Up to 10 people can join a photo session, and signed-in users will have access to additional tools including live chat.

Yahoo Product Chief Blake Irving just tweeted a ringing endorsement of Flickr, the company’s photo sharing site/community.

Q. Is Yahoo! committed to Flickr? A. Hell yes we are! We love this product and team; on strategy and profitable.

The tweet is no doubt a response to questions earlier this week about Flickr’s profitability and the possibility that Yahoo might shutter it (as other Yahoo properties apparently will be shuttered).

Long-time Flickr user Thomas Hawk took a stab yesterday at estimating how much money Flickr brings in for Yahoo, and after using what I’d call some questionable numbers, came up with about $50 million per year — small change for a company of Yahoo’s size, especially considering the costs of running a website with more than 5 billion photos. ReadWriteWeb followed Hawk’s article with one of its own that asked if Flickr might someday land on Yahoo’s chopping block.

Cal Henderson, former Director of Engineering at Flickr, responded in the comments on ReadWriteWeb that Hawk’s calculations “are deeply flawed,” and pointed out that Flickr gets a substantial portion of its revenue not from selling Pro accounts, but from ads and other partnerships.

Between Henderson’s refuting of the post that started the discussion, and Irving’s tweet this afternoon, it would seem that Flickr users can breathe easy for the time being.

It’s a search engine that looks for Flickr users you may know across five platforms: Flickr itself, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, and Facebook.

The new tool is accessible via a “People you may know” widget on the Flickr home page, or via a link in the “Contacts” dropdown menu. Recommendations are based on your contacts and the Flickr users they know.

In many ways, it’s reminiscent of Twitter’s ongoing efforts to foster more connections between users. (Facebook has similar friending tools, too, of course.)

If you don’t want to be found in this new search tool, Flickr says it will obey the “hide your profile from public searches” setting.

The changes include:

• Photos are 28% larger now
• Navigating from photos and to photos is faster now
• A new lightbox feature to enlarge photos
• Preview up five photos at a time
• Changed location of photo’s title, description, when a photo was taken, it’s location, camera/exif info and your name in one location to the right of the image.
• Centralized photo actions, like embed, delete, etc.

I have been using the beta for a few weeks and I do find the overall new design much faster and more useful.

After tomorrow’s deadline, Pro users will only be able to access photo stats dating back 28 days.

Flickr has gone back and forth with its Pro members on this issue. Historical referrer data has come and gone, and in early March, Flickr first announced that the historical data was available again, but warned of the June 1st deadline. A section of the Flickr help pages offers something close to an apology and explanation why the historical data is going away:

We promised you access to your all time data, and we’re disappointed we’ve not been able to deliver on that. We’ve been trying for over a year to get the data ready for you and in the process we have found that it’s just not sustainable for us to offer this access over the long term. What’s available is what we have managed to generate so far, it’s offered as is with no guarantees. We know it’s missing some data but fixing the holes or offering the data for longer would require us to divert too much attention from making the rest of the site better which, as always, is our main goal.

A Yahoo spokesperson clarified the above for us, saying, “creating and maintaining the files are processor and time intensive, requiring too much ongoing support.”

For businesses and individuals that rely on Flickr as part of an overall marketing strategy, this is an inconvenience at minimum. It’s also something of a warning flag that a company of Yahoo’s stature doesn’t have the resources to maintain historical stats for its paid Flickr members.

For example, the picture I took of Danny Sullivan with (former Microsoft’s) Kevin Johnson at a past SMX conference was a nice photo of Danny to tag. I click on the “add person” link on the right side of the page and begin entering in Danny’s name. Since Danny is a contact of mine in Facebook, I can easily add him as a person on this photo.

You then click on the little square on the right side of Danny’s name, which brings up a box on the photo. You then resize the box and place the box around Danny’s face. I believe as soon as I set this, Danny would get a notification that he has been tagged.

Then I tried to add Kevin Johnson, who is not a contact of mine on Flickr, which gave me this option:

If you tag a private photo, that person you tag on that photo will have access to see the picture, no matter what privacy options you have set. For more details, see the links below:

Who can add you to a photo: http://www.flickr.com/account/prefs/photospeople/

Who can add people to your photos: http://www.flickr.com/account/prefs/photoprivacy/

To find out how to remove someone from your photos, check out the FAQs: http://www.flickr.com/help/people/

Here is a walk through, screen by screen.

The app icon is plain and simple:

When you load up the app and past the start screen, images are displayed on the front page. But the images has slow motion to them, as they pane in and out between other images. If you are logged in, you get images from your friends as well. Here is a screen cap of that page:

From here, you have several icons and buttons you can click on. The most prominent is the search box at the top. I will explore each of the features below.

Here are the search options, including the ability to search “all uploads,” “from your contacts,” and “your photostream.” There is no auto-complete, plus, even though it does ask for your location, it does not give you the option of seeing photos in your location:

Here are the search results:

The “recent” button takes me to see recent “activity” or “uploads.” Here is a screen shot of my recent activity, showing recent comments left on my photos and recent favorites by others on my photos:

Here is a look at the recent “uploads” from my account:

The “You” button shows me my most recent pictures on Flickr:

Clicking on the top right icon will change the view from thumbnails to list view:

When you click on an image, you can see the image picture in larger format, more details about the photo, plus you can email it, skip forward or backwards or comment on the photo. Plus you can click on the image or click on the image tags:

Here is the comment form:

Here is that same image in the larger image viewer:

Here is a look at the tag search results:

To add a picture, click on the camera icon at the top right and you are given these options:

The “i” button takes you to learn more about the app, privacy policies and also gives you the option to login or log out at the top left of this screen:

The changes include:

• “View” controls to see the image results in small, medium or detailed view or even to see them as a slideshow.
• “i” icon on small and medium views, when clicked you get more detailed information about a particular photo.
• Perspective column on right, can show groups, photographers, tag clusters and places.
• Refinement summary information displayed on the search results.

There are tons of ways to use Flickr. If you can take a great photo, you can use Flickr to build inbound links and get your photos showing up in places like Consumerist and Epicenter. You can use Flickr’s comment area to build links that drive traffic and exposure. However, one of my favorite ways to use the site is to follow a link AND content development strategy. And that’s what this article is about helping you learn to do.

I’ll start out by saying that full credit for this method goes to Rae Hoffman who passed it down to me while we were brainstorming ideas for Outspoken Media. She also agreed to let me use TheBinocularSite.com, a site she owns with MFE Interactive, as our case study.

Case study: The binocular site

The Binocular Site prides itself on being an independent guide for all things binoculars. There are overviews on virtually every binocular manufacturer on the planet. There are consumer guides to address binocular-related concerns. Basically, if binoculars are your thing, this is your mecca. However, even with all that content, the site was looking for a better way to engage its community, especially with horizontal sites or sites that aren’t directly related to binoculars. Sites geared towards groups like hunters, birders or online predators.

One of the content pieces Binoculars was working on was a List of Birdwatching Spots to go inside its Birding section. Here’s how they used Flickr to not only help them build the content, but to attract links to it, as well.

Building the content. The Birdwatching Spots guide was to serve as a resource for the community. Each spot was carefully selected, researched and built out by a team of expert writers. To add to that value, they decided to include images associated with each of the spots mentioned in the article. To do that, they went to Flickr.To find images available for use, an Advanced Search was conducted looking only for Creative Commons-licensed content available for commercial use. They searched each one of the sites that the writers had covered and were able to find a collection of usable photos. The photos were added to the content with a link back to the original Flickr page. Thanks to Flickr, The Binocular Site now had real pictures of the locations to go inside their guide. Not only did this make the piece more visually appealing, it also increased its value. They could give people a feel of the spots, show what they really looked like, etc. The photos became an integral part of the birding section. But that was only step one of the Flickr campaign.

Building a volunteer promotion army. One thing you may not know about Flickr is that unless you have a Flickr Pro account, there are restrictions for how many people you can message. A quick $25 takes care of this. With a Pro account in hand, Rae and her team now had the ability to contact each of the photographers whose photos they were using. An email was sent out giving them a friendly heads up that their photos were being used and inviting them (and their friends) to come leave reviews on the actual locations. And the photographers did leave reviews. They also began promoting the content. Or more accurately, they began promoting themselves. They blogged about the birdwatching guide that used their photos. They linked to it. They sent traffic to it. They became the best promotional army you could ask for because they were feeding into one of the most basic human instincts there is—the need to be more famous and more recognized than the person standing next to you.

The result?

Thirty-five or so links to the main site (and that number goes up every week), to the directory and to other interior pages. All from connected and well-linked birdwatching sites.

Real foot traffic.

A more linkworthy directory thanks to the incorporation of expert photos, thus making it easier for the marketing team to market and build more links to.

It became a success story for how to do something interesting and gain links in a very natural way.

Using the method listed above, let’s brainstorm some other ways to use Flickr to develop both great content and great links. Ready? Let’s go.

Example #1: You’re a florist

You’re a florist and you’re looking for unique and interesting content ideas. How about a piece on Five Flowerly Fantastic Floral Arrangements? How do you create it?

Head to Flickr and do an Advanced Search for floral arrangements that allow commercial use as directed above. Spend some time going through the photos and select five arrangements (or more if you’re feeling daring) that you think your readers would find interesting. Then, create a post on how to save money by replicating these arrangements at home for less.

Once you have the photos and story in your head, start building your post. Make sure you link back to the Flickr photos you used and contact the photographer once the post is finished to give them the all important “heads up”. You may also leave a comment on the photo itself to point people back to your post. Sure, the comments are nofollowed, but you’ll still benefit from the traffic, especially if you select a popular photo or one that’s been added to several different Flickr sets [cough].

If you do it correctly and you grab a few photos per arrangement, you’ll have between 15-20 photographers to contact. Contact them and watch as they promote it for you on their blogs, on Twitter, in their photo and floral communities, and maybe even on Kirtsy or Boudica. It’s a great way to get really good content without having to be a fantastic photographer yourself.

Example #2: You’re in the automotive industry

We’re in the midst of a recession and you need to get people excited about spending too much money on their cars again. So what do you do? You write an article about The 7 Most Amazing Paint Jobs Ever. How do you do it?

Head to our friend Flickr and do an Advanced Search for car paint jobs. Once you find your photos, start thinking about how you can add extra value. If you just snatch a bunch of photos from Flickr, no one’s going to care and they’ll start to resent you. Instead, contact the photographer and see if they can put you in touch with the artist. Find out how much that kind of paint job costs, how long it took to complete, what went into it, etc. Use all of that information to create a resource that is worthy of attention and links. Something that gives love back to the community. Once it’s complete, tell the photographer and the artist where to find it. Chances are they’ll link to it and promote it. They’ll Twitter it, share it in their car community sites, etc. When you make other people look good, they want to promote you. You get people passionately working for free.

Example #3: You’re a wedding planner

‘Tis the season and everyone’s getting married. You may as well bring them to your site so that they can buy that $3,800 couture wedding gown from you. So what’s your next content piece going to be to get their attention? Why not the Most Outrageous Wedding Dresses of All-Time. As usual, let’s head to Flickr.

People love uploading their wedding photos to Flickr, it’s like a tic. So open up that Creative Commons, commercially-licensed Advanced Search and go on your hunt for wedding dresses. Find the 10-15 that pique your interest and pull them in for a post.

Once you have your photos, message the photographer and let them know that you”ll be using their work. Add value by asking them if they’d be interested in offering some additional information for the post to help your readers. Find out the designer name, the style of the dress, how much it cost, where it was purchased, where it was worn, what accessories were paired with it, etc. Basically, tell the story of the dress and the day and make it something that readers will really be interested in.

Once it’s done, invite the photographers to leave their own comments to add even more information. Chances are they’ll jump at the exposure. They’re also likely to once again help you promote it, reaching out to their photography blogs and networks. And of course, the wedding community. And let’s face it, there is no greater self-promotional group than those who are in the process of getting married. Get your story in their hands and they’ll pimp it to holy hell.

The idea here is to think outside the box and to start using Flickr as not only a place to scout for links, but for a breeding ground of content. Sometimes you’ll do this work and you’ll get a handful of links, sometimes you’ll get a hundred. You have to keep experimenting to find a content and link strategy that works. And once you do, you’ll not only come away with some superior content, you’ll be able to take advantage of that built-in promotional army.

Here’s a look at the two announcements:

Flickr’s “Mobile Makeover”

With visits to Flickr’s mobile site (m.flickr.com) up more than 50% in the past year, the mobile site now shares much of the same features and functionality that Flickr users are familiar with on the main site.

The Yahoo announcement trumpets the new video playback capabilities on Flickr mobile, but many users will be happier with the improved navigation. Your user home page (below left) sports quick links to see recent activity on your own photos, photos from your contacts, and the most interesting photos uploaded to Flickr. An individual photo page (below right) shows thumbnails of the adjacent photos in your account; a single tap navigates to that photo.

The video playback feature is available already for iPhone and iPod Touch users, and will be rolled out in the coming weeks for other devices that support streaming video.

For more, read Yahoo’s full announcement.

Google’s Picasa Upgrades

Google’s Picasa service is getting several upgrades:

• Sharing – Picasa users can now more easily see who they’ve shared photo albums with, and others can more easily see all the albums you’ve shared with them.
• “Sign-in required” albums – In addition to labeling photo albums as public or unlisted, a new option is “sign-in required.” This lets users share albums only with others who have a Picasa Web Albums account.
• Video playback – All videos that are 320 pixels or bigger will play back in higher-quality MPEG4 format.
• International name tags – The name tags tool is now available in 38 different languages.
• Automatic comment translation
• Improved gallery page design

For more, read the full announcement.