NY1.com

  74º

You are not signed in  |  Sign in here  |  Help

You're viewing a lite version of NY1.com

Time Warner Cable customers: Sign in with your TWC ID for video access.

Get my TWC ID. | Get TWC service. | Read the FAQ.

05/20/2013 10:30 PM

Yahoo Announces Flickr Changes, New Headquarters In Times Square

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

Yahoo made several big announcements Monday, hoping to revitalize one of the oldest brands on the web. NY1's Adam Balkin filed the following report.

Yahoo and new CEO Marissa Mayer have officially launched an all-out offensive in an effort to win back your eyes and precious time while online.

For starters, Yahoo decided it would answer a request from an online petition.

"Photos make the world go round, and that's why we want to make Flickr awesome again," Mayer said.

It's trying to do that with a major overhaul, starting with a new edge-to-edge photo filling look to the service. There are also now mobile apps for iOS and Android devices. But perhaps the biggest move is providing one terabyte of free storage for all users, which Yahoo says is 40 times more storage than the nearest competitor is offering.

"If you took a photo every single hour of every single day, it would take you over 61 1/2 years to fill that terabyte," said Adam Cahan of Yahoo.

Also at the press conference, which took place in Times Square, Yahoo announced it would be setting up a new New York City headquarters in Times Square. The so-called new media giant is taking over part of an "old media" space, the old New York Times building.

"We're going to gather all of our 500 employees in New York into one consolidated office," Mayer said. "We have expansion room for an additional 200, and we couldn't be more delighted to have our home here in New York."

That, coupled with news that Yahoo will be acquiring Big Apple-born blog giant Tumblr for $1.1 billion, made for two beaming "mayors" in the room, to steal a play on names from New York City's mayor.

"This really is very exciting news, and not just for Tumblr and for Yahoo, but also for New York City, because it helps show, I think, what a big player NYC has become in the tech industry, something we've worked at for a long time," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Incidentally, for all you Tumblr fans, Yahoo's Mayer insists that the company will take a very hands-off approach with its new acquisition, and, for the most part, let the current Tumblr staff continue to run the site.