In a bid to decrease reliance on its competitors and to put an end to the increasing number of social logins on Flickr, Yahoo is taking a big step by culling login options through Facebook and Google accounts.
Yahoo on Thursday announced that logging into Flickr using Facebook and Google accounts will not be possible after June 30. Instead, users will have to login with their Yahoo account or create a Flickr account to continue using the service.
“Hi Flickr User, After June 30, Flickr will remove the option to sign in with a Facebook or Google account,” read Yahoo’s email to Flickr users.
“Instead, you will be able to sign in using a Yahoo account. To create your Yahoo account, click ‘Get Started’ below.”
With hopes to accelerate traffic on Flickr, Yahoo offered multiple access points to its photo sharing service three years back. Although Yahoo’s strategy was right, traffic from other social websites began gaining prominence while logins through Yahoo accounts have begun dwindling recently.
In an effort to revive user base, Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer has decided that the only available access points will be a Yahoo account or a Flickr account.
Social media research firm Gigya, in its quarterly report on social logins, pointed out that Facebook is the most used social login, amounting to about 58 percent logins made online. Google logins sum up to 28 percent while Yahoo stays at 13 percent and Twitter at 4 percent.
On the mobile front, Facebook again dominates with 62 percent while Google still lagging behind at 26 percent and Twitter at 6 percent. Yahoo loses out to other social accounts with only 4 percent of users logging in to online services using a Yahoo account.
Flickr gained significance as the most used photo sharing service since it was acquired by Yahoo in 2005 but faded away into the background after the entry of Instagram. However, it started emerging as one of the prominent services last year after Yahoo announced a free storage of 1 TB and unlimited free accounts.
