flickr api search does not work for a subset of pictures

Question

I'm building a website that takes data from flickr and displays it in a custom front-end. The search using flickr.photos.search does not work for some queries, but it does for another:

It does not work for "blossom"

• try http://www.flickr.com/services/api/explore/flickr.photos.search
• user_id: 78425109@N03
• tags: blossom

produces no results results. However, http://www.flickr.com/photos/elizabeth_malara/tags/blossom/ displays correct results (and proves that images are visible to the public)

But it works for "farm"

• try http://www.flickr.com/services/api/explore/flickr.photos.search
• user_id: 78425109@N03
• tags: farm

produces same results as http://www.flickr.com/photos/elizabeth_malara/tags/farm

We can see selective behavior of the search API call. Why does it happen? Also, the API search doesn't work whether I search by "tags" or "text"

All the pictures are public and not flagged. Tag "blossom" was added a week after tag "farm" but that was all over a month ago

thank you

Answer 1

The question has been answered in Flickr Api discussion forum: http://www.flickr.com/groups/api/discuss/72157630529029048/#comment72157630529571842

It boils down to content_type. By default, flickr.photos.search returns only photos. Setting "content_type"=>"7" in the query makes sure that API will return all entries, not just photos.