Yahoo’s photos sharing site, Flickr, has been steadily redesigning a number of components of its platform over the past few months, including editing (courtesy of Aviary), photo views and more. And today, Flickr, which says it is home to more than 7 billion photos, is debuting a new, speedier, HTML5 photo uploader for images.
With the HTML5 technology, Flickr’s uploader has a more robust experience, including drag and drop functionality. So instead of only being able to upload manually, you can add photos by dragging them into the browser. Yahoo will also show your thumbnail previews of photos, so you can manage and reorder photos before they hit your photostream. And you can zoom, rotate or sort your photos by title within the uploader itself, as opposed to within the photostream.
Flickr says it will also upload metadata from other photo experiences (i.e. iPhoto) during the upload process, pulling in titles, photos, and tags. When you upload a photo or drag it into the uploader, preview thumbnail will pop up, and you can start adding descriptions, titles and more. You can now also tag your friends in photos and change licensing, content type and other advanced options right from the uploader page before publishing to your photostream. And files remain private until you choose to make them public.
Other improvements to the uploader include a speedier experience. Upload speeds have been improved by 20-30% on average, and up to 50-60% faster for international users. Flickr increased the file size limits for pro users up to 50MB and for free users up to 30MB.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco | October 13-15, 2026
Leena Rao is currently a Senior Writer at Fortune Magazine.
Leena had a brief stint at Google Ventures as an Operating Partner.
Leena’s first role out of journalism school was at TechCrunch which she joined in 2008. She rose through the ranks becoming the Managing Editor for TechCrunch and a voice at TechCrunch Disrupt.
She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City.
She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was the captain of the women’s varsity tennis team. She has also contributed technology content for Oprah.com.