REMINISCING TAKES ME into my personal archives once a week and part of that meandering uncovered the hundredth most-viewed image I have on Flickr. It's actually a shot of Ireland taken by the NASA Earth Observatory (hat tip to James Corbett) and two things are surprising about the image and the business intelligence about the views on my photostream at Flickr.com/photos/irisheyes. First, it's got fewer views than dozens of shots I've taken of Irish drivers doing stupid things. Second, it will remain thousands of views behind shots of gadgets because Flickr referrers prove that that people come looking for images of objects. They come from Google, Bing, and Yahoo! And they come in blocks of hundreds per week. I'll tuck the aerial view of Ireland away for Radio Kate, the woman in Audioboo Headquarters who hopes to get my Flickr view of Ireland while orbiting the earth.
Image from the NASA Earth Observatory. My most-viewed image on Flickr is Sam the ugliest dog with 128,000 views. I didn't snap that shot. It has attracted the most comments of any shot I have on Flickr. The most popular image I shot for Flickr is a tampon chandelier with 80,114 views.
Previously: "100th most viewed" on May 28, 2005.
