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At first I was indifferent-to-mildly-excited about video to Flickr. I watched one on one of my contacts' pages as soon as it was announced (said contact was a beta tester, so had a vid available as soon as it went live). It was a good video, so that helped, and I actually like change, unlike many of the people reacting badly to the addition of video. But the more I see how it's implemented on my little page on Flickr, the more I really kinda wish they hadn't done it.
It seems like a little nitpick, but I hate how now my Flickr page is titled "Flickr: Photos & Video from Lalitree", even though I have no videos uploaded. No big deal, but I'd guess that as they tweak the interface further, more menus and navigation options will have to be changed to de-emphasize photos and avoid confusion. Someone unfamiliar with Flickr coming to my photostream for the first time will have a much different impression now of what my page is all about, even if I have no videos at all.
Which is what really bugs me about this whole thing: Flickr used to do one thing and do it well. Now that's no longer the case, and that really dilutes the impact of a nice Flickr page as any kind of informal portfolio (or even a back-end for a portfolio, as I use it). Not that it ever was a great place to host a portfolio, nor was it ever intended to be, but I personally preferred it when Flickr's identity was simply a great place to share photos.
Maybe they'll further adjust things to ease the awkwardness somewhat--having a separate tab for video, rather than mixing them in with the photos, for example, might help quite a bit. Though staff's responses to the suggestions and complaints so far has been to dig in their heels somewhat, at least as far as the interface goes.
I know some people's reactions to this have been a bit over-the-top, but consider that everyone uses Flickr differently. I'd imagine those who just use it as a place to share fun stuff with their friends would embrace video enthusiatically. After all, most people's cameras take both photo AND videos, so maybe it seems natural to have them shared from one site? But those who use Flickr as more of a place to showcase photography might understandably dislike the loss of a photo-focussed site with great social aspects. As I'm somewhere in between those two camps, I'm sort of cautiously pessimistic at this point.
