Flickr was founded in 2004 by Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake as a photo sharing site for their gaming project and was later acquired by Yahoo. It aims to help users share photos with important people through tagging, comments, and groups while dealing with issues like copyright claims, moderating inappropriate content, and preventing harassment. While used to highlight past events, Flickr is for personal rather than commercial use. Improvements could include longer videos and expanded sharing beyond just website members.