This certainly was not the best week for Flickr. In deciding to no longer support non Yahoo user accounts, Flickr and Yahoo may be losing a number of original members.

In the tradition of acquisitive Internet companies, Yahoo has quietly given notice to users of Flickr, which it bought in March, that it will merge the operations. In a clause in Flickr’s FAQ, Yahoo said it will “migrate” all independent account holders to its own network, requiring them to create a Yahoo ID. In response, a portion of the tight-knit photo community is protesting the forced move by threatening to abandon their accounts a day before the imposed deadline in 2006. Under the group name, “Flick off,” more than 640 photo site members are bemoaning the change and discussing a migration of their own.

As one of the original old-school members it was very disappointing having to create and merge my original account into a Yahoo ID. It felt like the end of an era. On a positive note, Flickr is promising a number of new large scale changes coming down the pipe so I’ll keep my fingers crossed (for now). I really hope this is not the point at which Flickr jumps the shark.

With all these acquisitions I can’t help but draw parallels to the music industry. Right now we have a number of indie developers putting out great underground applications that are all the rage for power users and those in the know. As this underground popularity grows, many of these indie developers are getting the opportunity to sign to a “major label” web giant like Yahoo or Google. Unfortunately, the age old pressure to sell out and lose sight of the original vision tends to become a real problem. If a trendy indie like Digg was purchased by someone large like Fox or Yahoo would the content and opinions change in favour of the new overlords?

Luckily, on the flip side, there will always be hungry new indie developers out there with newer and more innovative ideas waiting in the wings to step up when the current leaders move on.