Flickr EXPLORE and how to get Explored on Flickr

    Explore is Flickr's way of showcasing the most interesting photos within a given point in time -- usually over a 24 hour period.

    Flickr receives about 6,000 uploads every minute -- That's about 8.6 million photos a day! From this huge group of images, the Flickr Interestingness algorithm chooses only 500 images to showcase for each 24-hour period. That's only one image in every 17,000!

    How to find out if your photo was Explored by Flickr: Big Huge Labs has a web-based app for that, called "Scout": bighugelabs.com/scout.php

    How to get explored on Flickr: Flickr says, "There are lots of elements that make something 'interesting' (or not) on Flickr. Where the clickthroughs are coming from; who comments on it and when; who marks it as a favorite; its tags and many more things which are constantly changing. Interestingness changes over time, as more and more fantastic content and stories are added to Flickr."

    The flickr group, Secrets of Explore has discussions on what are the measurements of Flickr's "interestingness". They have also included a link to Flickr's Patent Application that explains how Explore chooses images (if you want to be totally bored and confused ;o) .

    Fellow Flickrite, Thomas Hawk, has several suggestions from his Digital Connection blog about gaining popularity on Flickr (much of which applies to Interestingness): "1) Take great pictures. ...quality does matter. If you want people to look at your stuff, make your stuff worth looking at. 2) You get one shot a day...that matters. Choose it wisely. Make sure that the last shot you upload is your best. ...If you upload more than 5 at a time make sure your last five are your best and your last one is the best of the best. 3) Despite the top secretness formula of interestingness, it is really not that complicated to understand in broad terms. Your photos are deemed interesting when they have activity. When people tag your photos, comment on your photos, view your photos, leave notes on your photos, and especially when they favorite your photos you increase your interestingness rank. 4) Fav lots of photos. Be very liberal with your favs. ...If you see a photo you like on Flickr, fav it. Don’t be shy. It’s as easy as clicking on the little star above someone’s photo. Favs mean more to other Flickr users than comments or tags or notes or anything. 5) Post your photo to lots of groups and participate ...Don’t spam the groups, but if you have a photo of a bridge, put it in the bridge group. 7) Tag your photos religiously. Flickr allows users to search by tags (and especially to then rank their search by interestingness). 8) Above all, have fun on Flickr. Never take it too seriously." [Note: Numbers used are mine, not Thomas'.]

    From the Good 'ish Explore Missed group comes this quick advice:
    1. Choose your uploads wisely. Uploading 5 images a day won't help that 1 amazing shot.
    2. Tags! Tag your images and let search do it's thing! SEO sucks!
    3. Don't put your image in more than 5 groups, the more groups you are in, the less chance your photo will be explored.     [Make note that Thomas Hawk's advice of posting to "lots" of groups is more about gaining "popularity" on Flickr and not about getting Explored.]
    4. Love people in hopes that they will return the favor and love you back. Generosity is key.
    [Most of this mirrors what Hawk has said, but in fewer words. They just forgot the most important ingredient: Take great photos!]

    Explore Don'ts:
    1. Do not re-post your image over and over again on the same day (moving it up in time so that more of your contacts will see it and comment on it). It's okay to delete an image and re-post it the same day, or to take an old image and re-post it under a new title, to see if you think you can develop more interest in that image. What Interestingness will ban you on is using the Actions > View EXIF info > edit "Posted to Flickr" time to re-post your image on Flickr to the current time in order to have it reappear to your Contact over and over again throughout the day. This is a form of spamming. I do this occasionally on old photos that I want to revive (if I think it never received the exposure it deserved), but don't do on new photos or Interestingness will ban you.

    2. Do not place your photos in the groups that force you to comment on images within the group, i.e. the "Post 1, Comment on 5 - or get banned" groups. Groups like 1-2-3 are okay because they ask you to make three comments for every image you post, but they do not require you to make those comments.

    3. Do not post your photo to more than five (5) groups. This has already been mentioned, but it is a good idea to post your image in at least two or three groups for Interestingness sake. BTW, posting to a few more than five groups will not completely ban you from Explore, but it will lower your Interestingness score. I often increase my number of groups after the image is no longer eligible for Explore, because placing the photo with the right group (look for group names using keywords that describe your image) can often increase it's search engine rankings.

    Above image adapted from 'Stars, Milky Way, Jackson Lake, Grand Teton NP'.
    See the awe-inspiring NightScape Set – with one Milky Way after another!

    Comments and faves

    1. ★

      Pablin79, Aspenbreeze, Darrell Wyatt, VanGorkum Photography, and 93 other people added this photo to their favorites.

    2. IronRodArt - Royce Bair ("Star Shooter") (20 months ago | reply)

      .
      Canon 5D Mark III (body only) special sale price -- for a limited time -- click on the blue "Add to Cart" button to see the actual sale price (legitimate dealers cannot advertise the sale price with breaking their MAP agreements with Canon).
      .

      Thanks to all my Contacts for helping me get ExploreD yesterday -- that's the sixth time in the past 14 days!
      Last rays of sun behind Grand Teton Mountains Sunset over Jackson Lake and Mount Moran Stars, Milky Way, String Lake, Grand Teton NP Morning Sky over Moulton Barn Stars, Milky Way, Jackson Lake, Grand Teton NP Sunset behind Grand Teton pinnacle

      .

      See the awe-inspiring NightScape Set
      ...with one Milky Way after another:

      NightScapes
      19 comments

      NightScapes

      Please watch my uplifting NightScape Video
      NightScape Video screen icon
      CLICK play button to see my NightScape Video. If you like
      this movie, please post it on your Facebook page.
      .

      Improve Your Photo Vision
      A self-improvement newsletter and blog for photographers,
      edited by Royce Bair. Free monthly articles and how-to
      tutorials driven by your feedback. Subscribe now.
      .

    3. Darrell Wyatt (20 months ago | reply)

      And all well deserved. Congratulations!!

    4. D Cunningham (20 months ago | reply)

      You deserve it is right....Your photography is out of sight beautiful....:)

    5. Pablin79 (20 months ago | reply)

      COngrats!

    6. zulbaning (20 months ago | reply)

      congratulation ............. 6 is awesome

    7. Aspenbreeze (20 months ago | reply)

      Great info and congrats. I have found that this is the way it happens to me normally too ... I'll get several in a row and then no matter what I upload nothing again for awhile. But, none-the-less and no matter how it happens to be found out of ALL the numbers uploaded is always an honor. Your six in a row are beautiful for sure!!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing.

    8. IronRodArt - Royce Bair ("Star Shooter") (20 months ago | reply)

      That's the same way with me. It will be spotty for a while, then several in a row. (It must be voodoo science :o)

    9. Darrell Wyatt (20 months ago | reply)

      By the way, I love the text presentation of this shot.

    10. Phill Monson (20 months ago | reply)

      it is an odd thing- usually the photos I am on the fence about make it to explore, then th ones I really like never make it- who knows...

    11. WanaM3 (20 months ago | reply)

      That's definitely an excellent presentation. Contratulations on the recognition. Would defintiely like to see the full shot without the isolation. Nicely done.

    12. IronRodArt - Royce Bair ("Star Shooter") (20 months ago | reply)

      Thanks - I had fun this: choosing the right font, kerning it, adding the drop shadow, and choosing the right image to go into it.

      I know what you mean! I think we really like the photos we are "close" to -- the ones we spend way too much time on, and trying to get it just right. This seems to clouds our judgment. I know I "tweak" some images way too much.

      The full shot is right here (it was flopped for the isolated type):
      Stars, Milky Way, Jackson Lake, Grand Teton NP

    13. Steve-h (20 months ago | reply)

      Congrats... and you better make hay while the sun shines coz flickr has a nasty habit of changing the rules...and in a while you may find yourself among those who find themselves on the blacklist. Flickr says there is no such thing but it 's odd that those who feel they are on it have not had another explore shot since September 2009.

      And one piece of advice none of those above gave - do not repost your shots.

    14. alfonso-tm (20 months ago | reply)

      Congrats

    15. IronRodArt - Royce Bair ("Star Shooter") (20 months ago | reply)

      Right, Steve - I've added this (re-posting) as the #1 do NOT. As for many of my fellow Flick friends not getting Explored since Sept 2009: I've heard this a lot. I think there is some truth to it (I think there are ways to get banned). But from people in the know that I've talked to, much of what appears to be banning is mostly because the algorithm has changed (at least once, if not several times since Sept '09. One of the things that has changed is that persons who have been Explored in the past must get more comments and faves (and from the right sources) than they did in the past, in order to score with Interestingness. Flickr says they have done this so that new people get a chance to be included in Explore. I've noticed that an image of mine which recently received about 50 comments and 60 faves just barely made it into Explore (#332 out of 500 - page 34 of 50), where as a newbie photo with 12 comments and 10 faves scored a #30 (page 3). Within three days, I was pushed off of Explore for that day, and the newbie rose to the first page. (I try not to worry about my standings after I get Explored, or it drives me nuts!)

    16. Damir Smoljan (20 months ago | reply)

      Congratulations! All well deserved, indeed!

    17. JacquiTnature (20 months ago | reply)

      I really think you deserved to have those images in explore, they are way above average and incredibly beautiful!!!! When I no longer care about explore, that's when I make it lol!!!! By the way, this is beautiful too!!

    18. Edwin_Abedi (20 months ago | reply)

      I'm not sure if I agree with the "no re-posting." I don't normally do it since I just really only found out about it, but a few of my contacts do this multiple times during the day and make it to explore no problem. Are you sure you don't mean don't repost a shot that was uploaded on a previous day? One problem I find is, given the international distribution of my contacts, if I upload a photo early then it'll get a lot of views comments but these will then die down...of course someone somewhere is at work/sleep/etc....is it so bad to bump your photo up IN THE SAME DAY?...just so more of your contacts around the world can actually see it? I know I make an effort to go very deep into my contact list's photos...but I doubt most others do.

    19. l.gallier (20 months ago | reply)

      Congrats on the explore experience Royce! I love your headlining image at the top.

    20. IronRodArt - Royce Bair ("Star Shooter") (20 months ago | reply)

      Edwin, this is a topic for further discussion. I've been told by several people that even re-posting new photos on the first day will get that image banned from Explore. Despite this, several photographers on Flickr have told me they no longer care to follow the rules because Explore is so fickle anyway these days, and they can get more exposure and traffic to their image by re-posting. One very successful studio portrait photographer in NYC wrote me 2 years ago and said, "I do adjust the publish date of my photo many times a day to make it available for my different time zones contacts and friends." If he doesn't have anything new for the day he'll recycle through his old image and bring them to the front again! Some of his popular images that have been on Flickr for over a year have about 3K-5K views, close to 700 comments and about 500 faves. I did a search on Flickr for one of his images, using the keywords, "Amazon" and "girl". There were over 5,700 images (135+ pages of 42 thumbnails each) that matched this description. His portrait was on the first page (#32) under a "Relevant" sort, and #12 on an "Interesting" sort -- meaning to me that re-posting has not hurt him where it really count: having your images found. The images that were usually ahead of him were swimsuit babes with views in the 40K-50Ks.

    21. Thousand Word Images by Dustin Abbott (20 months ago | reply)

      Very helpful, Royce. Thank you!
      --
      Seen in my contacts' photos. ( ?² )

    22. Yana - World of Photography Art (20 months ago | reply)

      Congratulations!

    23. Dylan MacMaster (20 months ago | reply)

      Interesting read and some good info. Even more elusive is the Frontpage. I'm assuming you know, but if not, the Frontpage photos are picked from the current day's explored photos; looks to be the top 50 from what I've seen. Anyway, I tend to post photos at night, so usually they don't make the explore list until the following day. So, if you want to have any hope of hitting the FrontPage, you really want to post your photos in the morning and hope they debut high on the explore list. To me it's just another game of sorts, but by posting some of my best shots in the morning I've been able to get 3 shots on the Frontpage in the past year. As I said, it's just a "game" and doesn't necessarily mean a shot is great or not, but as your #1 suggestion said above, the best piece of advice is to take and post great photos. May we all strive to that level of excellence!

    24. meezerlover (20 months ago | reply)

      Your work is incredible and greatly deserves the recognition. So glad to hear they have picked you so many times. You produce quality photos and that puts you miles ahead of the pack.... ;-)

    25. billdroadrunner1 (19 months ago | reply)

      How can you get a photo noticed if Explore does not know where it is, that is why I add a photo to alot of groups, otherwise how can one photo ever get noticed to begin with.

    26. *HamimCHOWDHURY* [Only Posting photos ] (19 months ago | reply)

      Cool !!!

    27. Dutch Bricks (18 months ago | reply)

      I uploaded a picture yesterday and I really like it, how can this one get explored?

    28. manwar2010 (16 months ago | reply)

      nice information.

    29. Jeremiah True (16 months ago | reply)

      Good information, especially about the groups. I will keep that in mind going forward as I do share with a lot of groups and it may be too much.

    30. pukunui81 (15 months ago | reply)

      Why would posting a photo in more than 5 groups reduce the interestingness? Does the algorithm see that as spamming or something?

    31. JonMorgan. (15 months ago | reply)

      its been a while since one of mine was in explore

    32. pukunui81 (15 months ago | reply)

      Yeah, I was lucky to get three in Explore in such quick succession so soon after starting to actively use my Flickr account again, but I haven't had any more yet, even though there are a bunch that Flickr says are more interesting than the ones that did make it ... I guess that just goes to show that it isn't the 500 most interesting photos but rather 500 of the most interesting.

    33. My Fashion Doll Fantasy in 1:6 [deleted] (14 months ago | reply)

      I didn't know what happened or how it happened. I'm new to Flikr and all of the sudden I get comments from people out of my general group. Thank you for explaining the process; I feel honored to get Explored!

    34. Daybreak2006 (12 months ago | reply)

      i cant't belive one of my photos has been put on explore!

    35. Shein Die (11 months ago | reply)

      I am new to Flickr and I find out about Explore ... =) I am hoping I do interesting photographs and maybe be lucky to get in to Explore? Best. ...this picture seems to be one that most like ... would this be good for 'explore' ? .. thanks for your help. Shein
      www.flickr.com/photos/75184456@N04/7224294074 /in/photostream

    36. мooиι (11 months ago | reply)

      nice information.

    37. Isabel Comares (11 months ago | reply)

      Thank you for this helpful information, I got explored already 5 times and didn't really know how it works.

    38. JonMorgan. (11 months ago | reply)

      only had a few but this was a few years ago... since then nothing....

    39. materolo (10 months ago | reply)

      Just started on flickr, hope I can get some comments and visits :)

    40. James Thornbrook (10 months ago | reply)

      I got to NO.1

      I never used any tools. I just did my best work.

      Good luck everyone!

    41. Niels de Jong (9 months ago | reply)

      7 explores out of my last 10 uploads. I don't add it to more than 10 groups, but always more than 5.

    42. Home at Last. (9 months ago | reply)

      Had one, totally unexpected and thankful.

    43. Jonny Hirons (9 months ago | reply)

      Personally I think Explore is a joke and I never get too excited when one of my photos makes it. It's just a lottery. I actually think it is predetermined who will get explored on a given day/set of days (notice they almost always come in batches!) even before that person has uploaded anything. And if they don't upload on that day then someone else gets in! If your number comes up and you behave yourself then you get explored. It's really that simple.

      Honestly, I don't think comments, faves, tags etc have any bearing on whether you get in. But they may alter the ranking once you are there. Lets face it, if you're on page 1, more people will look at that than say page 30 which takes more effort to find! Each of my last 5 uploads has been explored. A couple of them didn't have very many comments/faves but got in higher than the others! But the count did increase once they were there!
      I don't think there is any way to influence whether you get chosen. But as you say, there are certain behaviours which are almost certain to make one forfeit any potential explores. Posting in too many groups where commenting is mandatory (thus trying to increase comments and faves) is one of them. And re-posting is surely another. Most of my explored photos have got in WITHOUT being posted in ANY groups first and the only faves/comments were from contacts, not strangers.

      I also think having too many faves could get you excluded. We can all visit our contacts' and strangers' photostreams and fave a load of their stuff hoping they'll reciprocate and take a look at ours. Hopefully our newest upload so it gets into explore! LOL! I suspect it would show up on explore's radar as trying too hard!!

    44. David85Williams (9 months ago | reply)

      Explore is a joke, so many average photos on there. I get fed up with peoples stupid polite comments like "ah thats beautiful" and "wow, this is amazing" when actually its just rubbish and doesnt deserve the exposure its getting.

    45. Michel Arel (8 months ago | reply)

      Thank you for the infos!!

    46. IoanBacivarov (8 months ago | reply)

      I agree that due to the algorithm many average photos are selected.
      I don't understand why so many low quality static photos (dolls with great eyes etc)
      are selected and excellent dynamic phots are ignored

    47. GrandpaCyb (8 months ago | reply)

      On Explore Don'ts: (above) you state:
      2. Do not place your photos in the groups that force you to comment on images within the group, i.e. the "Post 1, Comment on 5 - or get banned" groups. Groups like 1-2-3 are okay because they ask you to make three comments for every image you post, but they do not require you to make those comments.

      I clicked through to "1-2-3" and copied this from their home page:
      Jeff Clow (a group admin) says:
      23 Apr 12 - Welcome to the 1-2-3 group - we are glad to have you as a member and contributor here.We have two easy rules: You MUST comment on two photos within the pool for every photo you post here. Violation of this rule will get you kicked out. You must view a minimum of three photos after you post your image. Remember - you made a commitment to do so when you joined - and if you don't, you are violating a personal commitment to yourself

      I thought you might like to know about this,

      GrandpaCyb

    48. Rambonp love's all t (7 months ago | reply)

      Great !!!

    49. eMinte (6 months ago | reply)

      useful info, thanks

    50. Nathan Craig | Photography (5 months ago | reply)

      Thanks for the info, man! At one point, I uploaded 9 photos in 9 days and all 9 got Explored! :) you're awesome! One made it to #20! www.flickr.com/photos/exoticcarlvr22/71253811 51/in/photos... this one!

    51. Shedraway Photos (4 months ago | reply)

      I get comments and favs on my pictures from individuals who were on explorer, yet none of my photos have made it to explorer. Not I am losing sleep over it, but I believe the whole thing about explorer is just an over inflated hoax.... Flickr or any of the social network should be a place for fun and should not be a place to slave after Explorer.

      A simple genuin comment from a contact is worth 1000's of 'wow', 'awesome', 'great' messages that come from the likes by explorer bc I believe the latters are just fakes....

    52. J. H. Photography (3 months ago | reply)

      Thanks for the info. I would be funny if this went on Explore :).

    53. Linda De Volder (3 months ago | reply)

      Lately I noticed some of my contacts making explore at least 3 or 4 times a week, and the ONLY comments they have are award graphics from mandatory commenting groups.

    54. aapfarrington (3 months ago | reply)

      Thanks for the info as I want my photos to be explored.

    55. Nick - Denmark (4 weeks ago | reply)

      Just had 2 photo's in the last week on explore. Must be doing something right!
      Orange sunrise - Flickr Explore 2013-04-22 #496
      The road by the Lake. Skanderborg, Denmark. Flickr Explore 2013-04-19 #396

    keyboard shortcuts: ← previous photo → next photo L view in light box F favorite < scroll film strip left > scroll film strip right ? show all shortcuts