Update: I still haven’t heard anything from Yahoo, but we’ve learned that the account was fake — apparently Mayer does have an account, but it’s set to private. We’ve also learned that Mayer is searching for a new head of Flickr.
It looks like Flickr may be getting some much-needed love from its corporate parent Yahoo — Yahoo’s new CEO Marissa Mayer just created an account on the photo-sharing site.
That may not seem like a big deal, but neither Carol Bartz nor Scott Thompson, Yahoo’s past two CEOs, had a publicly visible Flickr account, as noted by photographer and early Flickr evangelist Thomas Hawk. Symbolically, at least, that suggested Flickr wasn’t a top priority for them. So even though Mayer’s account only holds a single corporate headshot right now, it still feels like a meaningful gesture.
Hawk was actually the first to spot Mayer’s new account, which he said “sends a powerful and positive message both to Flickr’s staff as well as to Flickr’s users.”
And Mayer’s interest appears to go beyond just creating an account. Blogger Robert Scoble claims that Mayer has doubled the size of the Flickr team in the past week. And Hawk points out the team is still hiring, with a number of open positions.
I’ve emailed Yahoo PR to confirm that the account really is Mayer’s and that she has grown the Flickr team. Of course, even if it’s all true, that doesn’t guarantee Flickr will actually manage a comeback. But it does suggest that at the very least, Mayer intends to try.
[top photo spotted at the Yahoo campus]