Flickr reaches 3 billion photographs

By Stephen Shankland on 04 November 2008, 10:33am

We've always been annoyed by the significance we humans attach to numeric milestones just because they happen to involve a high number of zeros.

But 3 billion -- the number of photos now housed on Flickr -- is undoubtedly a big number. It's also more notable when you consider that Flickr's 2 billionth shot arrived less than a year ago.

The 3 billionth photo, with the meaningless camera-supplied name of DSC_2672_1, is a black-and-white shot of a door on an abandoned house in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward by Garrett Ryan Smith.

Those of you longtime Flickr loyalists -- who may have been hoping to achieve immortality by submitting the 3 billionth photo yourself -- may be distressed to hear that Smith is a Flickr newbie who was just looking for a place to share some pictures.

"I have been using Flickr for less than a week now," he said. "My future sister-in law had her first child last week. I had my camera with me and took a round of photos...We figured this would be a good way to share the photos with everyone across the United States and also with a family friend serving overseas."

Facebook, meanwhile, has more than 10 billion photos. But while it's a social networking site where people share their snaps, it's not the haven for photography enthusiasts that Flickr has become. At the Yahoo site, many join groups of like-minded photographers, comment on each other's shots and share advice on forums.

As for the shot itself, Smith had this to say: "Since Katrina hit I have been back to New Orleans numerous times and still cannot believe what it looks like three years later, especially in the Lower Ninth Ward area."

Flickr noted the milestone on its Flickr blog yesterday.