Yahoo completely overhauls Flickr to "make it awesome"

Yahoo launched an Android app, redesigned the homepage and gave each user a 1 terabyte of space

When it became clear that Yahoo was interested in buying Tumblr, the Internet seemed to have one collective thought: please do not let this become another Flickr. 

Flickr, you see, was a hip image hosting and video hosting website that was bought by Yahoo in 2005. It was then abandonded, and largely forgotten by the Internet community. And it has since become a lesson for what can happen when a cool startup is bought up a large property. 

 In fact, Yahoo's purchase or Tumblr, which was made official on Monday morning, scared users so much that thousands feld to other services just hearing what might happen.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer seems to be well aware of this problem and has come up with a solution: make Flickr cool again.

"Flickr was awesome once. It lanquished. We not want it to be awesome again," Mayer said at a press event held in Times Square Monday, saying, 

And to make that possible, Yahoo has decided completely overhaul the service, giving it a new look, more space and putting it on more devices.

• Spectaculr

Yahoo has decided to totally redesign Flickr, with a new homepage and photostream, which elimated the text and white space of the previous design. In addition, all of the photos, both uploaded and downloaded, will be full resolution.

The new homepage also comes with a new Activity Feed, which combines the updates of the user's friend with activity on the user's own photos.

"Its heartstoppingly beautiful. It's an emersive photo experience, where its really wall-to-wall photos, all about the photos. We couldn't be more excited," Mayer said. 

• Wherevr

Yahoo previously updated Flickr this past December, making it more social by letting users share on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and email.  They can also upload multiple photos from your camera roll to the Flickr site and tag people and add locations from Foursquare.

Yahoo took it a step further on Monday, with a new Android app, in addition to its iOS app and PC.

"Wherever you, whatever device, any screen, any friends, you can upload your photos, you can share your photos. Flickr works on all major platforms," said Mayer.

• Biggr

On top of the new design, and the new platform, the most remarkable change might be to the amount of space that each user will now be given: one terabyte, which is an incredible amount of space.

How much is it: according to Mayer, if you took every picture ever taken in the history of the world, it would only take up one-tenth of a single terabyte. 

'This is about putting lifetimes of photos on Flickr. And absorbing all of the beauty that is a photograph into our daily habits," she said.

A new office

In addition to the Tumblr acquisition, and the Flickr update, Yahoo actually revealed yet another piece of news:' it is opening a new office in Times Square. This will be one consolidated office for 500 of Yahoo's New York employee, though this will not be the new home for the Tumblr team, who will be staying in their current office in Union Square. 

To celebrate the event, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg made a speech in which he welcomed the company to the city.

"From one Mayor to another, let me say congratulations," Bloomberg joked. 

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