You probably had heard that Yahoo! will close its Yahoo! Photos service on Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 9 p.m. PDT. I have a Yahoo! account but I do not use their Yahoo! Photo service. I use Flickr instead. Here are few notes you’re probably need to know:

• Yahoo! will focus on Flickr. Yes, Yahoo! acquired Flickr two years ago. So, rather than having two photo sharing services, Yahoo! will only run one, that is Flickr. I believe it was not an easy decision. Once again, Yahoo! Photos service will be closed on September 20, 2007 at 9 p.m. PDT.
• Before the service completely closed you have some options to keep your photos. You can choose from some other photo sharing services. They are: Flickr, Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly, Snapfish, and Photobucket.
• You can also download all you photos (before you move your photos to other photo sharing services, or before Yahoo! Photos service completely closed).
• You can buy an archive CD. This service is provided by Englaze Archive. You will be charged $6.95 for every 700 MB of photos (if you’re Yahoo! Photos users). This service only available for users who signup for New Yahoo! Photos service. It was introduced in August 2006. (Read Englaze FAQ)
• If you have moved to other services, you can not access your Yahoo! Photos account anymore. You should choose the best option.
• You need to wait until your photos transfered to new service you choose. It depends on how many users uses the other services. If your photos have been transfered, you will get notification emails. If you’re in the waiting list, just wait. Flickr probably the fastest service in the transition (yeah, Flickr is owned by Yahoo!).
• During the transition, you will not be able to access your Yahoo! Photos account. If you have problems during the transition, the problem will be addressed to the target services, so you need to contact them directly.
• If you give different photo permission (private, public, friends), all your photos will be flagged to “private”. So, you need to change the photo permission by yourself.
• All other information e.g. Album Information, Photo Information, Photo Detail: EXIF data (camera type, resolution, size, etc.), and tags will be transfered. If your photos have comments, friends’ list, and smart albums; all these information will not be transfered.
• Since you will be using other service, you need to follow its aggreements (storage and upload policies).
  • If you’re using Flickr’s free account, you can upload 100MB worth of photos each calendar month. And, photostream views limited to the 200 most recent images. If you have more than 200 photos, all of them will be stored. But, only 200 recent photos will be visible. (more info)
  • Kodak EasyShare Gallery provides free unlimited online photo storage to you for 12 months from the date you first upload an image to your account. (more info)
  • Snapfish offers free, unlimited storage of your online photos, whether they come from film you develop with us or from digital photos that you upload to your account. There is no limit to the number of rolls you can send in, nor is there a limit to the number of digital photos you can upload. You can have an unlimited number of albums and photos in your account. (more info)
  • Shutterfly offers free, unlimited storage. You can store as many pictures as you wish, with no fee to upload or store your pictures.
  • If you want to use Photobucket, you can read all Yahoo! Photo Migration FAQ.

Once again, I believe that this decision is not easy to make. For Yahoo! Photos users, it might be one thing they do not want to happen. Yahoo! runs the service, and it’s their decision. Like or not, we have to choose.
References:

• Yodel Anecdotal: Give your Photos the fun of Flickr
• General information about Yahoo! Photo closing
• Yahoo! Photos on Yahoo! Answers