There are a couple of reports hitting the wire that Flickr Video will debut next month (April). One at CNet - Flickr Video beta due in April | Outside the Lines and one at Tech Crunch - Video Coming To Flickr Soon. Really..
I think some of the greatest sites are the ones who can focus on a single offering and make it great, be it wine, video or photography. If Yahoo were to debut a video site, that would be one thing, but integrating it into Flickr I think might be a mistake.
I have seen cased where video can be a nice compliment to photography in instances when a photographer wants to show how he achieved a particular end result, give a short documentary on his work or document a entire shoot. Even the Strobist Flickr Meetups are great fun to watch. There are a lot of discussions in Flickr groups that link to YouTube or Vimeo for that particular purpose. However, having a place to store and showcase any video like the two aforementioned sites will only dilute the creativity that has become Flickr.
Flickr has proven itself to be a viable tool for photographers; some great ones at that. Will these photographers still find value in Flickr once Video is introduced? I guess only time will tell. I suppose it's really going to depend on how it's integrated and how good their content filters are. What I would hate to see is a repository of tween video, like those my kid is addicted to watching on YouTube. On the other hand, if integrated in such a way as to compliment the photography that's hosted, like the examples I've listed earlier, it might be a good transition.
Photography and cinematography are art-forms in their own respect and they share common principles. Let's hope Flickr (Yahoo) doesn't forget that and gives the respect and attention that each field deserves. I'd really hate it if Flickr became a quest for 15 minutes of fame.
On Tuesday, Mar 18
Well, it is called "Flickr", after all. I guess they finally decided to make their name match their product :)
On Wednesday, Mar 26
agreed: they should keep focus to one thing only and launch a separate site if they want to exploit video... fingers crossed it wont end up being an ugly mix of flickr/youtube...
truth is, though, that a decent repository of cinematography does not exist, and chances are slim that one of the top dogs (ie Yahoo etc) will do it right (it takes more than an army of skilled engineers)
On Monday, Apr 14
I have a different take: I have no problem with video on flickr and there will no doubt be useful slide shows, tutorials, and more up there soon.
The whole "don't change flickr" politic is so old and so conservative. I mean, it's not like flickr is some kind of high end photo portfolio site, it's a community with great stuff and crap and everything in between.
Anyway, I"m for it and I'm as old skool as they get having been with flickr since the beginning.
On Monday, Apr 14
I really haven't formed an opinion yet Richard. I've had very little time for Flickr in the past two or three weeks so I haven't had a good or bad experience with it. If there are some good tutorial/documentary videos, please point me to them.