Flickr is also now using lower compression for photos.

After a prolonged period of newslessness during which upstarts like Instagram made waves in photosharing, original gangster Flickr has been making major improvements. Today Flickr announced bigger, beautiful-er photo sizes for Pro members: 1,600 and 2,048 pixels, “the next phase in Flickr’s redesign initiative happening over the course of the year.” The new sizes will be available for images uploaded after March 1. Flickr also recently launched a new photo view and a slicker uploader.

Adrianne Jeffries is the editor of Betabeat. Follow Adrianne on Twitter or via RSS. ajeffries@observer.com