Yahoo Sticks Its Logo Next to Flickr's to Users' Dislike

Yahoo's campaign to focus its branding and strengthen the relations between its core services may be already backfiring. Popular photo sharing site Flickr has been owned by Yahoo for more than four years now but for the most part it managed to keep as separate as possible. Judging from the reaction most Flickr users had to Yahoo's idea to stick its logo on every page on Flickr, the first strategy may have been the right one.

For a few days now Yahoo's purple logo has been stitched to the Flickr logo in what many are calling a very poor-quality job. And of all the places where this could have happened, Flickr is probably the worst. The site has a core following of very loyal and tech-savvy users who like to think of themselves as ahead of the curve and who, for the most part, are. Yahoo is hardly a brand to appeal to these users, as evident from the company's own focus. When unveiling its new It's Y!ou campaign, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz made it clear that “when you get outside New York and Silicon Valley, everyone loves Yahoo.”

Few Flickr users have been happy with Yahoo's purchase of the site but have been able to ignore the fact so far. However, seeing Yahoo's logo on every page makes painfully clear who the owners are. But apart from the “ideological” reasons, the outcry is justified just from a design point of view. The purple in the logo clashes with the site's clean and established colors and the image itself looks very pixelated. It's so bad that some are actually wondering if Flickr didn't do it like this on purpose expecting the kind or reaction it got. Still, at least some Flickr employees are supporting the change.

“We're sorry if you're turned off by this most recent change. We feel that it goes a long way to quell those weird intermittent stories that bubble up that Yahoo! is on the verge of pulling the plug on the Flickrverse,” Flickr's Heather Champ wrote in the message thread dedicated to the change on the Flickr forums.

However, the next part of the message reveals the true reason behind the change, not that it was much of a surprise to anyone. “We’re happy to be a part of the major Yahoo! brand campaign that you’ll see more of out in the wild in the coming weeks. You should keep an eye out, as several Flickr members have had their photos licensed for the campaign. That all will begin rolling out next week,” she added.