SALON

Friday, Oct 1, 2010 6:02 PM UTC

Facebook pictures go hi-res

The social networking site boosts the capacity from 720 to 2048 pixels in what might be a move on Flickr

By

Topics: Facebook, Social Media, The Social Network,

Facebook pictures go hi-resFILE In this Wednesday, July 23, 2008 file photograph, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, introduces Facebook Connect at a developer conference in San Francisco. On Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010, several media outlets reported that Zuckerberg is going to donate $100 million to Newak's public school system, which has has some of state's lowest test scores and poorest graduation rates. On Oprah Winfrey's Chicago-based syndicated television show Friday, Sept. 24, 2010, Democratic Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Republican Gov. Chris Christie and Facebook founder Zuckerberg are expected to announce the donation. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, file) (Credit: AP)

Beware, ugly people: Facebook’s photos have gone high-resolution.  On the eve of “The Social Network,” the site’s photos product manager, Sam Odio, announced in a blog post that Facebook has added support for unlimited hi-res pictures.  Now you can post as many unflattering pictures of your friends as you want.

The new 2,048-pixel capacity — more than twice the previous resolution — should have acne-ridden teenagers around the world cowering. With the original limit of 720 pixels, blemishes were veiled behind blurry, grainy, red-eyed images, and uglies everywhere took comfort in this safety net.  Not anymore. Now there’s nowhere to hide.

Also improved is the site’s photo viewer and uploader, all of which is aimed at enhancing the “experience” of image browsing. Odio also points out that, “unlike on many other online services” — cough Flickr cough — “you don’t need any kind of premium or paid account.”

But does this spell doom for competing image-hosting websites like Yahoo’s Flickr and Google’s Picasa? Will they suffer the fate of MySpace and be crushed under Facebook’s shadow?  Is this one further step in Mark Zuckerberg’s march toward world domination? Kate Day of the Telegraph doesn’t think so. She writes that Facebook photos “aren’t meant to be beautiful” and instead are mere photo journals, open to the casual viewing of family and friends.  And because of this, specialist photography communities such as Flickr need not worry. Facebook’s new hi-res feature, Day writes, “isn’t so much about photos as it is about social sharing.”  Don’t tell that to Zuckerberg.

More Chris Le.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 1 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations