Search Engine Optimization

Are Your Images On Getty Being Seen?

By Jim Pickerell | 603 Words | Posted 7/9/2019 | Comments
It is interesting to note that when we searched the 210 individual collections and recorded the numbers in each the total came to 28,591,367. However, if you go to the site and search for all images you are only shown 26,240,654 images. For those who haven’t tried this you can simply go to gettyimages.com, enter any keywords and hit return. When the return come up with the “Filter” option on the left hand side of the screen remove the keyword, leave the search bar blank and click again. Now, you will be shown all the images for the “License Type” you have requested. Be sure the “License Type” is set on RF or RM. Then you can go to “Collections,” choose the one you want and see all the images in that collection.

More On ICL And Avoiding Infringements

By Jim Pickerell | 1767 Words | Posted 8/9/2018 | Comments
Laura Annick asked some questions concerning my article about the concept of an ICL. Here are her comments and my response. You're assuming that 100% of all creators will have uploaded their images and thus if a searcher cannot find an image, then it must be free to use. As you know there are TONS of independent filmmakers out there. It could take quite a long time to get EVERYONE to upload their images. I would rather see a notice saying "Image Not Found, Further Research Needed" or Use at Own Risk.

Picture Researcher Needed

By Jim Pickerell | 1257 Words | Posted 8/6/2018 | Comments
Recently, I received a call from the developer of a real estate website who is looking for a picture researcher to help him find images to illustrate the stories he will publish on his website. He is looking for “free” pictures, but has determined that it takes too much time, and is too much hassle, to do the research on the free sites himself. He is willing to pay someone to do that research, but not pay for the photographs.

Shutterstock Launches Ireland Office

By Jim Pickerell | 555 Words | Posted 6/12/2018 | Comments
Shutterstock has announced the launch of its Dublin office with the intent to initially hire 40 professionals including engineering roles, and to potentially grow the team further over the coming years. This project is supported by the Irish Government through IDA Ireland.

No Credit On 97% Of Images Newspapers Publish Online

By Jim Pickerell | 347 Words | Posted 6/8/2018 | Comments
Imatag has analyzed over 120,000 images on the websites of 23 major news organizations in Europe and North America and determined that only 3% of those published have credit or copyright metadata. Photographers will be surprised to learn the names of publications stripping data compared to those that credit photographers and leave metadata.

SmugMug Acquires Flickr

By Jim Pickerell | 942 Words | Posted 4/23/2018 | Comments
SmugMug, an independent, family-run company, has acquired Flickr from Verizon’s digital media subsidiary Oath. Flickr was founded in 2004 and sold to Yahoo in 2005. Yahoo, in turn, was acquired by Verizon in 2016 for $4.83 billion. Verizon combined Flickr with AOL to create a new subsidiary called Oath.

Dreamstime Files Suit Against Google

By Jim Pickerell | 739 Words | Posted 4/2/2018 | Comments
Dreamstime has filed a sweeping lawsuit against Google in California federal court alleging anticompetitive and discriminatory antitrust law violations as well as on-going breaches of contract, in order to use its monopoly position in online search to benefit its business partners – Shutterstock, and of late Getty Images – while leaving other stock photo sellers out in the cold.

Album Upgrades Website 

By Jim Pickerell | 182 Words | Posted 2/1/2018 | Comments
The Barcelona-based photolibrary www.album-online.com has upgraded its website, designed & powered by its own internal team, with some improvements which will benefit photobuyers, including reverse image search, and bigger thumbnails so users can see if the picture meets their needs more quickly. 

Will Blockchain Benefit Image Creators

By Jim Pickerell | 907 Words | Posted 12/28/2017 | Comments
Can blockchains improve tracking of stock photo sales, give creators greater control, cut costs and increase royalties? Various companies are talking about instituting such systems. Announcements are expected in the near future. Such systems may reduce the need for some of the services stock agencies currently provide and remit 80% to 90% of the fee the customer pays to the photographer.

Photos Shot In 2017

By Jim Pickerell | 621 Words | Posted 12/7/2017 | Comments
According to Statista 1,200 billion photos will be taken worldwide in 2017. Not surprisingly,  85% of them will be taken with Smartphones, 4.7% taken with Tablets and only 10.3% were taken with digital cameras. That works out to about 123,600,000,000 photos taken with digital cameras. A very small percentage of these will be made available available for licensing.

Tired Of Low Prices? Here’s A Possible Solution

By Jim Pickerell | 1068 Words | Posted 11/29/2017 | Comments
Tired of low stock photo prices? Maybe you ought to license your images to customers direct. More and more customers are finding the images they need by searching Google. Sometimes the image may be one of yours that is represented by an agency. You may be able to get these searchers to come directly to you.

Google Slides Makes Finding Images Easier

By Jim Pickerell | 346 Words | Posted 9/27/2017 | Comments
Both Shutterstock and Adobe Stock have announced that users of Google Slides  can now access their collections directly. This could result in more image uses for photographers with images in both collections.

Easier Search For Customers

By Jim Pickerell | 922 Words | Posted 7/18/2017 | Comments
One of the major problems faced by the stock photo industry is “too many images.” Customers don’t need more images they need to be able to find an image that works quickly. To offer some additional search options Adobe has introduced some AI-powered aesthetic filters that will enable art directors to search more naturally and intuitively.

How Many Images Does It Take To Make Money?

By Jim Pickerell | 966 Words | Posted 7/3/2017 | Comments
Stock Performer recently published an article entitled “Are you uploading enough files to make money from microstock?” The article offers some interesting statistics. However, there are some other issues that need to be considered like, “Is More Automatically Better.”

Dreamstime Integrates AI and Machine Learning

By Jim Pickerell | 590 Words | Posted 3/16/2017 | Comments
Dreamstime, has announced the implementation of a proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) system that uses sophisticated algorithms to screen submitted images. The machine learning tool is designed to examine how human editors at Dreamstime review images, and then adjust its parameters to best match the editors' various criteria

Real vs Arranged Photos

By Jim Pickerell | 830 Words | Posted 3/14/2017 | Comments
There is a lot of noise about the demand for photos that are “natural,” “candid” and more “realistic shots of real people” rather than the carefully arranged, high production value photos that have been best sellers in the stock photo industry for many years.

Alamy Image Manager

By Jim Pickerell | 795 Words | Posted 2/10/2017 | Comments
As image databases get larger and larger, keywording becomes more and more important as photographers try to get their work high enough in the search-return-order for the images to be seen. Often creators must spend more time keywording than they spend taking pictures. In addition, image distributors are constantly coming up with new strategies that often necessitate going back and re-keywording images that have already been uploaded.

Agencies Ignoring Data

By Jim Pickerell | 1386 Words | Posted 1/3/2017 | Comments
The major agencies talk about how important their DATA is and how it has changed the industry. They argue that the company with the most and best data will be the winner. But I don’t think they are really looking at much of the data they have collected – or looking at it in the right way.

Getty Unification: Image Ingestion

By Jim Pickerell | 607 Words | Posted 11/23/2016 | Comments
Once Getty’s Unification Project is fully implemented one of the issues Getty and iStock photographers will need to consider is where to upload new images in order to minimize effort and maximize sales and revenue.

What’s Next At Getty

By Jim Pickerell | 1057 Words | Posted 11/9/2016 | Comments
The Getty Unification Project that creates common platforms where both iStock and Getty Images contributors can upload their images and bring them into the Getty marketing system opens the door for a lot of potential new changes. If, or when, any of the following issues will come to fruition is unclear. But, Getty or iStock contributors and anyone considering offering images to either of these companies should consider the implications of these possible changes.

Search Algorithms: How Do They Work?

By Jim Pickerell | 777 Words | Posted 10/19/2016 | Comments
Microstock sites used to surface new images for weeks or months after they were uploaded. Now, photographers are saying that this no longer seems to be happening. It would be nice if photographers had more information and a better understanding about how the search algorithms work. Here's a little about how I think these complex algorithms work.

How Good Is Visual Image Search?

By Jim Pickerell | 946 Words | Posted 9/27/2016 | Comments
Photographers are discovering that Getty is being paid fees by Pinterest for images it doesn’t represent.

Getty Images Launches Adobe Creative Cloud Plugin

By Jim Pickerell | 841 Words | Posted 9/26/2016 | Comments
Getty Images has launched an Adobe Photoshop plugin that allows user to find images in the Getty collection and then edit watermarked images in Photoshop. If any image found and manipulated in this manner is later purchased, the edits will be applied to the licensed content.

PicturEngine Update

By Jim Pickerell | 3363 Words | Posted 9/21/2016 | Comments
After publishing my analysis of PicturEngine last week (9/14) Justin Brinson, PicturEngine CEO, made extensive comments. I’ve decided to re-publish the entire story with Justin’s comments inserted where he indicated.  I hope this gives readers a clearer understanding of this new search engine.

Adobe Stock Launches Contributor Site

By Jim Pickerell | 418 Words | Posted 9/20/2016 | Comments
Adobe has launched the public beta of the Adobe Stock Contributor Site, a new platform that enables creatives to upload and sell their photos, illustrations, videos and vectors to the world’s largest creative community.