MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: gbalex on March 02, 2014, 18:35
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I ran into the free image site http://www.freestock.com/recently (http://www.freestock.com/recently) and found out by doing a who is search that the site owner is Shutterstock.
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Registrant Name: Domain Administrator
Registrant Organization: Shutterstock, Inc.
Registrant Street: Empire State Building, 350 Fifth Aven
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=freestock.com (http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=freestock.com)
It also looks like Shutterstock's Lead Software Engineer/Technical Manager developed freestock.com
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At Shutterstock, the world's largest micro-stock photography website, I am currently engaged in designing, building and deploying cutting edge websites using open source technologies such as Perl, MySQL and Apache. Accomplishments to date include:
- Development of Freestock.com (http://freestock.com (http://freestock.com)), a freely downloadable stock footage web site based on the Shutterstock library.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jnapiorkowski (http://www.linkedin.com/in/jnapiorkowski)
Does anyone know where they get the images that are provided for free download at http://www.freestock.com/ (http://www.freestock.com/)
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At least some of them are Jon Oringer's own photos, also available to purchase from SS:
http://www.freestock.com/free-stock-photo-147-sea-lion-on-sandy-beach-barking-to-its-mates.html (http://www.freestock.com/free-stock-photo-147-sea-lion-on-sandy-beach-barking-to-its-mates.html)
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-6855/stock-photo-sea-lion-on-sandy-beach-barking-to-its-mates.html?src=pp-same_artist-6872-2 (http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-6855/stock-photo-sea-lion-on-sandy-beach-barking-to-its-mates.html?src=pp-same_artist-6872-2)
http://www.freestock.com/free-stock-photo-243-inside-an-exposed-lime-green-umbrella.html (http://www.freestock.com/free-stock-photo-243-inside-an-exposed-lime-green-umbrella.html)
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-7247/stock-photo-inside-an-exposed-lime-green-umbrella.html?src=c97vNMK7bVW6sQebMZurqg-1-35 (http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-7247/stock-photo-inside-an-exposed-lime-green-umbrella.html?src=c97vNMK7bVW6sQebMZurqg-1-35)
http://www.freestock.com/free-stock-photo-2525-red-wall-texture.html (http://www.freestock.com/free-stock-photo-2525-red-wall-texture.html)
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-47/stock-photo-red-wall-texture.html?src=c97vNMK7bVW6sQebMZurqg-1-26 (http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-47/stock-photo-red-wall-texture.html?src=c97vNMK7bVW6sQebMZurqg-1-26)
Looks like the same idea as a site iS had for a while, where they offered free pics in the hope you'd prefer one of the pay for pics showing on the same page.
IMO that only has even a slight possibility of working if the pay-for pics on offer are similar to, but clearly much better, than the free offerings.
IMO again, people who are looking for free images, like teachers or charities etc are mostly going to run a mile when they click on a sponsored image, try to download it, then see the normal page http://www.shutterstock.com/subscribe.mhtml (http://www.shutterstock.com/subscribe.mhtml).
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Did a search for whitetail deer buck and found one of my images, when I clicked it, it went to shutterstock for purchase. I think it went back for purchase from shutterstock. Didn't look free to me.
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Did a search for whitetail deer buck and found one of my images, when I clicked it, it went to shutterstock for purchase. I think it went back for purchase from shutterstock. Didn't look free to me.
Was that in the 'Sponsored images' list or the 'free images' list?
All the free images I clicked were indeed free, and the 'sponsored images' went to SS for purchase.
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Did a search for whitetail deer buck and found one of my images, when I clicked it, it went to shutterstock for purchase. I think it went back for purchase from shutterstock. Didn't look free to me.
Was that in the 'Sponsored images' list or the 'free images' list?
All the free images I clicked were indeed free, and the 'sponsored images' went to SS for purchase.
Right. I got scared when I found lone of my best selling underwater images there, but it's a sponsored image, goes right to SS.
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It looks very much like the setup at stock.xchng (http://www.sxc.hu/ (http://www.sxc.hu/))
I did some searches , including one for San Antonio and I think this shows their problem clearly:
http://www.freestock.com/search/free-san-antonio-stock-photos.html (http://www.freestock.com/search/free-san-antonio-stock-photos.html)
Not one of the free images is actually of San Antonio (I assume because there aren't any). They're not even very good pictures of the Golden Gate bridge :) Mine are there, but they're sponsored and go straight to Shutterstock.
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It looks very much like the setup at stock.xchng ([url]http://www.sxc.hu/[/url] ([url]http://www.sxc.hu/[/url]))
I did some searches , including one for San Antonio and I think this shows their problem clearly:
[url]http://www.freestock.com/search/free-san-antonio-stock-photos.html[/url] ([url]http://www.freestock.com/search/free-san-antonio-stock-photos.html[/url])
Not one of the free images is actually of San Antonio (I assume because there aren't any). They're not even very good pictures of the Golden Gate bridge :) Mine are there, but they're sponsored and go straight to Shutterstock.
I agree the free images do not meet the quality of sites like http://all-free-download.com (http://all-free-download.com) which shutterstock also sponsors. "Not the image you are looking for? Try a search on shutterstock"
You just wonder how many of these sites they are using and who provides the technology behind them, not to mention the free images?