10/07/2008
Flickr Launches Rainbow and Photo-Vomiting Panda
Flickr recently launched a rainbow and photo-vomiting panda. According to Mashable, "the service allows you to see new images as they come into the site and have been popularly rated as interesting."
Nobody seems to have any idea why the rainbow or the panda, however, if it gives you a few moments of joy in these dark days of ours, why question it.
Posted 9:12 AM EST by Andy Towle in News, Photography | Permalink
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loving that.
Posted by: brad | Oct 7, 2008 9:22:39 AM
I think the rainbow may be a riff on the character of 'The King of All Cosmos' in the cult favorite PS2 game, 'Katamari Damacy.' The King uses the rainbow to return you to your home planet. Though the King is a static character who scarcely moves, with what he has in his tights he could be a TitanMen exclusive.
Posted by: MyDogBen | Oct 7, 2008 9:25:58 AM
From my understanding, the panda graphic and the animated version were created by a few members of a Flickr group called "Secrets of Explore". "Explore" is a feature on Flickr that uses a secret algorithm to select the "most interesting" photos on Flickr by picking the top 200 or so images per day. Many Flickr members become obsessed with "Explore" trying to figure out how to get their photos to appear there. Being the algorithm always changes, this group "Secrets of Explore" talks about current tips to make it into Explore.....such as having your photo in a certain number of groups, or having a certain amount of comments on the photo, etc. The panda logo and gif were created to somewhat mock people who take "Explore" too seriously. Explore is famous for having pretty and trite pictures such as sunsets, flowers and kittens, thus the overly cute logo to embody all of that. Flickr asked and got permission to create an explore page using the graphic.
Yes, I spend too much time on Flickr to know anything about this. :O)
Posted by: Patrick | Oct 7, 2008 9:44:33 AM
Oh, I forgot to add that the very talented artist who created the logo goes by the name "The Searcher" on Flickr. His photostream is worth browsing through...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bar-art/
Posted by: Patrick | Oct 7, 2008 9:51:17 AM
Ah, Patrick, now I can match the Towleroad person with the Flickr person. :-) I've visited your photostream on several occasions. I, too, spend a lot of time on Flickr, tho I've never quite understood the obsession with Explore since it's such a mish-mash. In that light, the vomiting panda is amusingly suitable.
Posted by: Ernie | Oct 7, 2008 4:36:15 PM
Derek Chatwood has the answer to why Pandas and Rainbows, but doesn't seem to be saying right now.
Posted by: Aman Chaudhary | Oct 7, 2008 4:41:45 PM