Flickr just got perfect

Flickr is probably my most favorite web application I’ve ever used (“most favorite” doesn’t sound right, but you get the idea). Now that I’m really getting into photography, I’m realizing more of what it can do—which results in me loving liking it more and more. Then today (or maybe yesterday), Flickr released collections and a customizable layout. A collection is nothing more than a ‘set of sets’, but this is something I’ve been wanting for a long time. Now, not only can I organize my trips and vacations into sets, but I can have a collection of sets for Trips & Vacations.

The fact that you can associate a few sets with a collection isn’t that impressive (although very beneficial), but the way they’ve implemented it is impressive. The ‘organize’ section of your photos is where you can setup collections. Just drag your sets over to the collection of your choice, and viola, it’s that simple (you can also drag/reorder your sets within the collection itself). Then you can create a mosaic for that collection, choosing a nice blend of 12 photos from any of the sets it contains (those are also draggable). I think that’s awesome, and it works really well.

And to add in a little more, you can now specify a different layout for your main photo page. You can have small pictures with sets to the right, or small pictures with collections to the right, or large pictures with sets to the right, so on and so forth. There is a total of six layout options. I personally like having smaller photos with my recent sets to the right—the default view. But when I get a new camera, I’m sure I’ll be taking pictures at least 2-4x more than I am now, so I might decide that collections to the right would be a better fit. Either way, it’s nice to have the option. Kudos to Flickr for being perfect.