BetaBeat

Flickr has started rolling out those major changes we told you about, and the early reviews are glowing. The “contacts” screen where Flickr shows new photos from your Flickr friends used to look like a tiled bathroom wall that was mostly caulking; the photos were tiny and there was a ton of white space. Now photos are larger and each row is neatly justified to span the width of the screen, filling in the white space without cropping or altering any individual photo. It’s a simple change, but it’s the most significant makeover Flickr’s had in years.

As Flickr explained:

We created this new view to make it easier to see the stories your friends are telling with their photos. While the previous layout choices are still available, the new design optimizes for seamlessly displaying more images at larger sizes, so you can see more of the activity from contacts, friends and family at once.

Needless to say, our Justified layout always respects the aspect ratio of the original image and will never crop your photos. We’ve also added quick access to comment on and fave directly on photos in this view.

Flickr will be rolling out the new view to all its users this week. The initial response from the photo site’s often-critical crowd: delight! Read More