The more I’ve used G+, the less I’ve been interested in Flickr. Some of it is the interaction – it’s so much smoother in G+, it’s almost painful to use Flickr. A lot of it is just their lack of attention to detail.

Interaction is probably the largest bit. It’s easy to follow other photo producers. But leave a comment, and it’s nearly impossible to track replies to your comments. It’s fine for building a following, or a list of followers. It’s a failure for building interpersonal ties. That’s unforgiveable in the age of social media, I think.

But it’s solveable. I suppose there are third-party apps that could help, or other workarounds. Flickr could (god forbid) do some actual development of their own site. Shoot, even Facebook rolled out a bunch of features recently. If they could shift quickly, surely Flickr could?

But if Flickr were to try to adapt, I fear their lack of attention to detail would kill them. It’s a hard thing to define – why are Google’s, 500px, and others’ sites so much easier to use? Why do bugs still exist in Flickr’s interface?

The experience on other sites isn’t perfect. But Flickr – shoot, I can’t click on images in the web app. My Android phone won’t position the lightbox-enabled photo properly. That’s a pretty important piece, don’t you think?

Many photographers are flocking to Google+ these days. It’s the best thing ever, they say. They crow about the superior browsing of photos, and the engagement they get from fellow photographers on G+. I agree with them but I think they’re just a bit off, conceptually.

Coming at this from a different angle: I’ve finally put my finger on what it is that frustrates me about Flickr, yet excites me about Google+. It’s the interaction.

On Flickr, you can comment. But it’s hard to follow a thread of conversation – you get lost in the noise, as it were. You can follow comments on your photos, but you lose yourself on other peoples’ threads.

G+ really doesn’t have that problem. Not yet, at least. Since there aren’t thousands of annoying banners, invites, etc., you don’t lose track of the conversation.

So for me, that’s really it. Flickr still has its place, but barely. Google+ is more appropriate (for now) for connecting with like-minded people.