According to Flickr, its mobile site has seen a more than 50% increase in traffic over the last year. Today, Flickr is rolling out a new version of its mobile site, m.flickr.com, which not only updates the user interface in general, but also adds video playback to its already long list of features. Starting today, iPhone and iPod Touch owners will be able to make use of this feature and Flickr will roll out video playback for most other phones capable of supporting video streaming over the next couple of weeks.
The video platform for Flickr’s mobile site is based on Yahoo’s Video Platform, which allows Flickr to support a wide variety of codecs and video sizes..
Flickr will also release the new features it first introduced for the iPhone and iPod Touch in October to the rest of its mobile users on other mobile devices with support for Webkit, Firefox Mobile, and Opera Mine. These new features include a more user friendly interface to view your own photos and recent activity, as well as that of your contacts. Users can also now add contacts, favorite images, and change privacy settings while on the go.
Overall, this is a nice update to Flickr’s mobile site, which was already very strong in terms of usability and speed. Adding video is a nice touch (though, Flickr’s users were of course somewhat hesitant when Flickr first added video). The core feature for Flickr, however, is still photos, and here the mobile site really shines.
