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A ROUND-UP OF THE LATEST NEWS IN THE DIGITAL WORLD

SMUGMUG BUYS FLICKR

THE once-mighty photo sharing web service Flickr has been bought by rival photo-hosting site SmugMug.

Flickr was one of the first social networks to go big in the 1990s, but suffered after failing to react quickly enough to competition from the likes of the much-simpler and smartphone-based Instagram.

Nevertheless, Flickr remains the photo-sharing site of choice for many photographers, a lot of whom value it because it has more features than Instagram.

Flickr was bought by internet search giant Yahoo! a decade ago, but continued to decline.

Yahoo! was bought out by US mobile carrier Verizon last year, and there were fears Flickr’s days were numbered.

Both Flickr and SmugMug have said nothing will change in the short-term, and that there are no plans to merge the two services.

But Flickr is advising users who don’t want transfering to SmugMug’s T&Cs to delete their account before May 25.

There is an FAQ on the Flickr blog at blog.flickr.net/en that offers more info on the aquisition.

MONEY SAVING EXPERT SUES FACEBOOK

THE man with all the financial answers is piling more pressure on social giant Facebook by launching proceedings in the UK High Court to sue them for defamation.

The “money saving expert” Martin Lewis, right, says at leat 50 ads have appeared on Facebook with his name on them, but have nothing to do with him.

He says his reputation has suffered as a result.

Quite a lot of the ads feature his face, too, and many promote schemes relating to cryptocurrency.

Lewis says he does not appear in any kind of advertising without exception, and that it should be a simple matter for Facebook to identify ads that use his name or likeness and get rid of them. He is seeking damages, but says any money he is awarded will go to anti-scam charities.