The puzzle of 'Explore'

  Three of my photo on Flickr have been 'explored'.

The first time it happened, I was very puzzled to find one of my photos seemed to have garnered a surprisingly high number of 'views' and I had been invited to join the 'in explore' group.

It took me a while to realize that being 'explored' meant that somehow my photo had been flagged by the Flickr 'explore' algorithm, and that the invitation to join the group was completely separate, and came from the admin of the (user) group and not Flickr admin.

Apparently the Flickr 'explore' algorithm picks 500 newly uploaded photos each day, which it deems 'interesting', for reasons which are obscure and places them in an 'Explore' list.  This list is simply to allow users to browse new photos which they might not otherwise see.

A brilliant idea!  Occasionally I have a peek in there and I see many wonderful photos which I otherwise would never have come across.

It's very gratifying of course to be deemed of enough interest (even by an algorithm) to be added to the list, but at the same time, deeply puzzling.

Why that photo?  I guess I will never know.  If you click on the photos below you will be taken to the relevant Flickr page.

Here is the first photo;​

The next photo to be 'explored' was a quick snap of Angelika in a new DZ70 blouse which I took with my phone to show a friend how it fitted.  For reasons which will remain ever obscure to me it became very popular indeed and quickly garnered over 10,000 views and 100+ favourites.  Go figure.  I have to laugh given all my attention to carefully photographing my dolls, and then having a quick snap attract so much attention... who knew?

And then, inexplicably, a similar photo was chosen, this time of Iplehouse Doria in the same blouse;

Why?  I guess I'll never know - the methodology of the algorithm is kept secret, for good reason, since those Flickr members obsessed with collecting 'followers' would game the system.

But the attention sure is nice while it lasts!