Flickr Out to Get Photoshop?

*I would like you to take into consideration that this is the 21st century and that photo editing tools have been around for quite a while now*

The previously announced partnership between Picnik and Flickr has finally paid off today, with the launch of the editing program that is supposed to make Flickr more user friendly and a lot more important for everybody who has an active account there. The service is described by the people over at Yahoo!'s photo sharing site as "world class", and they also mention that it is "web based". The latter affirmation is important, really, but the first is far from being true. The options are magnificent, but they are more like those available in the beginning of photo-editing software, as you can see in the photo on the left.

At least, it's easy to use, all you need to do is click the "edit photo" button above any of the stored photos and Flickr will launch the Picnik editor on site. Depending on the type of user you are, Pro or regular, you will be given the option to simply save the photo or replace the original.

The Flickr blog says that "The Picnik/Flickr collaboration works similarly to other 3rd party services who've built additional tools on top of the Flickr API: You'll need to pass through the step of giving the Picnik service permission to edit and save your photos� It's a little bit like you're 'installing' Picnik on your Flickr account, but with nothing to download." It's web based, but it will give you the feeling that you're using a software you've installed. That's comforting.

Nevertheless, Flickr must be credited with finally jumping on the ship that's heading for progress, as most of its more important rivals have already had their personal photo-editing tools for a while now.