Late last month, Yahoo Image Search integrated live Flickr photostreams into its index, which seems to have introduced Flickr to a new (or perhaps older) generation of Yahoo users. After several weeks, it seems that the inclusion of Flickr into Yahoo Search has been a success, with Flickr traffic up 38% according to a Hitwise study.
LeeAnn Prescott says that because of the change at Yahoo, Flickr has now become the #2 most popual photography website in the United States, trailing Photobucket.
You can see on the chart below how Flickr overtook Yahoo! Photos at the beginning of June (in the purple and navy lines on the left axis). You can also see just how much Yahoo! Image Search results helped increase Flickr’s traffic (in the thin lines on the right axis). As of last week, Yahoo! Image Search was the leading source of traffic to Flickr, accounting for nearly 18% of its upstream visits. Previously Google had been its largest souce of traffic.
