After a few weeks in public preview, we’re rolling out the new Flickr photo page to 100% of the Flickrverse. Our effort in this release focuses on two areas that will continue to make Flickr the very best place for your photos.

Display: New look and feel to showcase your photos bigger and more Flickr-er
Interaction: New and redesigned features to improve browsing, discovery and communication with members about their photos on Flickr.

Since June 23, over 800,000 members have helped us test the new page. Discussions and suggestions in the preview group have also complemented usability studies, surveys, statistical studies and other feedback to ready the photo page for today’s launch. Thank you for your time and effort.

So what’s new?

Bigger photo: We’ve increased the default view size by 28%. Your cameras will be happy that your photos now take advantage of increasingly larger and higher resolution displays! We’ve also built a new lightbox feature. Click on any photo or use the magnifying glass icon to browse through large photos on a dark background. Just you and photos — no distractions.

Navigation: Getting from one photo to the next is faster and easy. Move forward and back with ever-present navigation buttons above each photo. Want to get from one context to the next? Go from your photostream to sets to groups to any number of ways that photos are organized on Flickr is simple via the upgraded film strip on the photo sidebar. Click on the title of any film strip to switch contexts. Preview five photos at a time within the context of your choice, too.

The story: Your photos already carry the narrative elements of who, what, where, when and how whenever you upload them to Flickr. Browse Flickr and you’ll see stories within stories — photos within photostreams within groups or any kinds of combinations. So we’ve made it easier to find when a photo was taken, it’s location, camera/exif info and your name in one location to the right of the image. Along with the title and description and we think that photosharing will increasingly become story-sharing.

We’ve also centralized things you can do with a photo in the Actions menu above the photo, highlighted the copyright, privacy and sharing settings on each photo and provided more visibility for the discussions that happen around photos. In addition to all this, the page is faster! The code that creates the page is leaner and better optimized for fast page loads.

We hope you’ll take a spin and discover all the other new features we’ve added — they’re quite lovely! For more information, you can check out the FAQ or join the discussion in the help forum.

The San Diego Zoo is celebrating the birthdays of three of the Zoo’s famous Giant Pandas this week. Check out their group and best of all the amazing and fabulous pandacam. Pandas chewing on bamboo? Nuff said.

Photos from snoorez, Rita Petita and Barry Wallis.

Photos from ryanstrong, Chris Martin | photosbychrismartin.com, Dubtastic, sikKboy, and Stéfan.

Photos from Jabi Artaraz, notarivs, , GViciano, dayangchi, ManuelHurtado, and Jacd1974.

Photos from Rainprel, Jason Dale, waxorian, Stavwoz, Rienk Mebius, R.bean, bob the lomond, mikkohei and Hans Bouman.

You can find so many more wonderful photos with this theme starting with a basic search.

Dogs with what? Goggles, you say? Oh my, so many more.

Photos from ittybittyphoto, sgcallaway1994, Marcfoto, lakewentworth and extraspecial

Today the the Library of Congress debuts the Gottlieb Jazz Photos on the Flickr Commons.

From the Library’s set notes, William P. Gottlieb was a noted music journalist and self-taught photographer, who chronicled the jazz scene in New York and Washington DC during the 1930′s and 1940′s.

Gottlieb sold his collection to the Library, and in accordance with his wishes the photographs in this collection entered into the public domain on February 16, 2010. Please note, additional rights of privacy and publicity may apply.

If you’re in the beta of the new Flickr photo page, a wonderfully addictive way to view these, or any photos, is in the new light box view. Use the arrow keys to page through them, and be dazzled by the Golden Age of Jazz.

See more jazz photos on the Commons.

Photos from Saran Vaid, Jamal Alayoubi, tim.perdue, Andrés Otárola, Alessandro Vannucci, jitenshaman.

Flickr member urtica posts photos of moths, bees, caterpillars, and all manor of other fauna and flora in her photostream — all thoroughly tagged for your enjoyment. Some of us are a little squeamish around insects, but her photos help show the beauty in our little flying friends. Take a look at her wonderful Bug of the Day set for a daily dose of insecta!

Flickr member OneEighteen has a most unusual view while he works. He pilots large cargo ships moving in and out of the port of Houston, Texas. Vicariously take a ride with him by checking out his set My Office Window.