Today Flickr released a tool (in beta testing) that allows posting links to Flickr photos to one’s Twitter stream. They’re calling it Flickr Twitter, and all of the information can be found in the Flickr Twitter group. The feature works as part of Flickr’s Upload by Email system, allowing one to upload a photo by email and have it automatically posted to Twitter using a shortened flic.kr URL. If there’s a subject on the email, that will become text in the tweet.
I’ve often wondered why Flickr didn’t have Twitter integration (it would seem a natural addition to their sharing features) and this is a great first step. This will replace my use of Twitpic on my mobile phone (a G1). I can’t help but wonder if this might be the beginning of the end of Twitpic – when your usefulness is in only partially-filling a niche yet tackled by the big players, lifespan is often shortened. If Flickr, Picasa, and other photo sharing services add full Twitter integration, I predict that folks will choose the fuller feature set of the big players as opposed to the one-use aspect of Twitpic. We shall see.
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