Apparently SmugMug recently purchased Flickr.  This is just one of those normal things that happen with tech companies, but since I use Flickr extensively for backing up all of my photos and videos, this concerns me probably much more than others who don’t use the service.  SmugMug support assures everyone (and has reassured me directly through several direct support e-mails) that Flickr isn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future.  Both SmugMug and Flickr will remain intact, and the acquisition will only strengthen both platforms moving forward.  I guess this is much like when Google acquired Waze.  Google Navigation and Waze Navigation both remain intact, but they are improving by sharing information and data.

I tried going with SmugMug for awhile many years ago, but it wasn’t anywhere near what it is today.  So I started trying it out again this week, and I’m in the process of migrating all of my Flickr photos and videos at this time.  I found a nice site that automates this process, and it’s running right now.  Here’s some interesting number I don’t quite understand yet:  Flickr says I have 48,888 photos and videos on their site.  That’s TOTAL – both public and private, and 31.517 of those are public.  That sounds about right I guess, those totals have been increasing slowly over the years at a normal rate.  Every photo I take auto-uploads to Flickr as my backup (as well as to Google Photos), both of which are free (Flickr has a 1TB limit, Google Photos has unlimited storage as long as I have a Google Pixel phone).  The tool I’m using to migrate Flickr to SmugMug (PicBackMan) says I have a total of 94,511 photos and videos!  That’s nearly DOUBLE my grand total that Flickr says I have, so it’ll be interesting to see what SmugMug shows when it’s finally done migrating.  A couple initial things I’ve found with SmugMug that I really like is with GIFs and just the simple motion in every photo I take with my Google Pixel phone… Flickr never showed this and doesn’t support GIFs, but SmugMug recognizes both GIFs and the motion in all of my photos and displays it!  I might eventually switch to SmugMug, depending on how this trial goes.

If you’d like to check it out as my SmugMug site evolves, you’ll find it at https://jimsphotoworld.smugmug.com/.  My cover photo is even animated.  There might not be many photos there yet, as the first album it’s migrating is my “Auto-Uploads”, which is private.  But all the others are right behind it, so they’ll be coming in soon enough.