Yahoo’s loss is Yahoo’s gain as Flickr traffic soars

Traffic at photo-sharing site Flickr is up 38% over the past four weeks, according to data from traffic-tracking vendor Hitwise. Hitwise attributes the increase in large measure to the fact that as of June Yahoo Image Search started indexing and including images from Flickr, its photo-sharing community, in search results as Yahoo starts shutting down its other photo-sharing service, Yahoo Photos.

Yahoo had earlier announced it would not continue to support both services and has encouraged users of Yahoo Photos to sign up with Flickr.

According to Hitwise, the increase has pushed Flickr, with a 6.42% share of all visits to U.S. photo sites for the four weeks ending July 7, up to the No. 2 spot in the photo-sharing site category. In March, Flickr was No. 3 with a 4.57% market share. Leading the category as the most-visited site is Photobucket.com, with a market share calculated by Hitwise at 43.9%. Hitwise notes that Yahoo Image Search is now the leading source of traffic to Flickr and accounts for nearly 18% of referred visits. Previously, Google had been Flickr’s leading online referral source.

Hitwise also notes that Flickr’s share of the photo-sharing site category is increasing abroad as well. Its data shows that with an estimated 10% market share in the United Kingdom and Australia, Flickr is the second most-visited site in its category in each, trailing Photobucket in both countries.