flickr iphone app hashtagFlickr has pushed the latest update to its revamped iPhone app, and the headline feature is a tweak to an existing one from the web: according to the changelog, tags are nowhashtags, and can be tapped directly below each photo. While Flickr was one of of the first web services to popularize tags as a sorting and search mechanism, it seems Yahoo felt that legacy wasn't enough for the photo-sharing service to keep pace; the change is in line with the Flickr app's adoption of retro filters and @-symbol usernames. The word "hashtag" hasn't extended to the main Flickr website itself, though, and existing tags from the web don't show up as tappable hashtags in the app.
By adopting the language of the app-driven mobile web, the Flickr app gets closer to the likes of Twitter and Instagram, but it's not a huge change in practice — once you click a hashtag, you see a stream of relevant photos just as you would with a regular search, and the hash itself is actually removed from the header. It's not a major shift in the way the service works, then, but mobile users will now find it easier to find photos related to the one that they're viewing. And, with recent rumors of Facebook adding similar functionality still fresh in the air, the symbolic change was noted by the man credited with inventing the hashtag in the first place.