Achilles posted this today (Dreamstime) -

One of our latest updates for the search algorithm went wrong and we are now seeing for most keywords a massive influx of irelevant images in the first ranks. This is just to inform you that we're aware of the issue and we're working to solve it asap. Due to the size of the database and the complexity of our algorithm it may take a while.
We have switched to "best selling" as a default for the search engine, while we address the relevancy.

We apologize for the trouble, this didn't go as expected.

I wondered if the site had been down - one sale on a weekday was pretty surprising!

Wow, an agency admitting they've made an error?  Not blaming it on the hampsters or the ghost from the 70's?  (Glad to hear too, wondering why my sales have flopped this month!)

Now that is an refreshing response. Thank you DT for your honesty and timely update.

Now this explains why my DST sales went down, but it doesn't explain why my Istock sales suddenly went up.  It's been up for more than a week now.  I almost thought that several DST customers had jumped over to Istock 

Quote from: Pixart on April 06, 2012, 04:28
Wow, an agency admitting they've made an error?  Not blaming it on the hampsters or the ghost from the 70's?  (Glad to hear too, wondering why my sales have flopped this month!)

Yes, it makes me feel like a grown-up when a site communicates like this

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on April 06, 2012, 09:29

Quote from: Pixart on April 06, 2012, 04:28
Wow, an agency admitting they've made an error?  Not blaming it on the hampsters or the ghost from the 70's?  (Glad to hear too, wondering why my sales have flopped this month!)

Yes, it makes me feel like a grown-up when a site communicates like this

Indeed. That being said it really is a bad switch for me, since I have few images with a decent number of DLs, out of top 4 by far the lower

I noticed the site being down for a while yesterday, and figured my sales would end up being lousy for the day because of it.  But when the search came back with the default to best sellers it must have helped me... turned out to be a typically good weekday for me, with sales in line with the rest of the week. 

Quote from: stockmarketer on April 06, 2012, 12:22
I noticed the site being down for a while yesterday, and figured my sales would end up being lousy for the day because of it.  But when the search came back with the default to best sellers it must have helped me... turned out to be a typically good weekday for me, with sales in line with the rest of the week. 

Maybe you are selling a lot of not-quite-relevant images   

Quote from: cuppacoffee on April 06, 2012, 04:22
Achilles posted this today (Dreamstime) -

One of our latest updates for the search algorithm went wrong and we are now seeing for most keywords a massive influx of irelevant images in the first ranks. This is just to inform you that we're aware of the issue and we're working to solve it asap. Due to the size of the database and the complexity of our algorithm it may take a while.
We have switched to "best selling" as a default for the search engine, while we address the relevancy.

We apologize for the trouble, this didn't go as expected.

They need to leave it as it now is __ my sales have gone through the roof! DT's 'Relevance' algorithm produces ridiculous results anyway.

Quote from: djpadavona on April 06, 2012, 13:46
Maybe you are selling a lot of not-quite-relevant images  

LOL. I must have a bunch of popular irrelevant images too. Now if iStock will just launch their "Worst Match" search, I'll be set.  

Wow...I haven't mad a sale since the end of March and I was wondering what was going on.  Great to hear the honesty come through.

Thanks for posting this.  I wondered what happened to my sales this week.  Figured it was Easter, but maybe the search issues are to blame?

Looking forward to sales returning to normal soon...

I'm fascinated by the open admission that the search algorithm is now extremely complicated and difficult to manage.  This has to be true everywhere.   And it's obviously a challenge to even determine if it's working as intended.

Quote from: stockastic on April 06, 2012, 21:14
I'm fascinated by the open admission that the search algorithm is now extremely complicated and difficult to manage.  This has to be true everywhere.   And it's obviously a challenge to even determine if it's working as intended.

It doesn't 'have to be true' at all. You only need a relatively few factors, such as sales/month, file age, views/sales ratio, keywords used to buy, etc to generate a good but simple algorithm. Sounds to me that DT has simple over-complicated the issue and got themselves into a mess. SS has by far the best search algorithm IMHO; it has never broken down and presumeably has been continually refined over the years without the wild swings of fortune that IS keeps doing.

thanks for posting that cupacoffee and kudos to Dreamstime for being honest about what is going on.

Quote from: gostwyck on April 06, 2012, 15:36

Quote from: cuppacoffee on April 06, 2012, 04:22
Achilles posted this today (Dreamstime) -

One of our latest updates for the search algorithm went wrong and we are now seeing for most keywords a massive influx of irelevant images in the first ranks. This is just to inform you that we're aware of the issue and we're working to solve it asap. Due to the size of the database and the complexity of our algorithm it may take a while.
We have switched to "best selling" as a default for the search engine, while we address the relevancy.

We apologize for the trouble, this didn't go as expected.

They need to leave it as it now is __ my sales have gone through the roof! DT's 'Relevance' algorithm produces ridiculous results anyway.

Agree.  Whatever they did I am getting a bunch of $3-$6 dl's.  I love it.

Some win, some lose. For me no sales for days....

I wonder if this will result in more high level sales (which could benefit DT and sellers with high level images). My own sales have not been mostly upper level though.

Maybe DT was trying to fix the deal where they would show a whole string of nearly identical images in the search - then they could start accepting vaguely similar images again.

In any case, thanks for being honest about it and good luck w/ getting it up and running right again.

I wonder if this is why sales have essentially come to a halt for me.

Quote from: gostwyck on April 06, 2012, 21:32

Quote from: stockastic on April 06, 2012, 21:14
I'm fascinated by the open admission that the search algorithm is now extremely complicated and difficult to manage.  This has to be true everywhere.   And it's obviously a challenge to even determine if it's working as intended.

It doesn't 'have to be true' at all. You only need a relatively few factors, such as sales/month, file age, views/sales ratio, keywords used to buy, etc to generate a good but simple algorithm. Sounds to me that DT has simple over-complicated the issue and got themselves into a mess. SS has by far the best search algorithm IMHO; it has never broken down and presumeably has been continually refined over the years without the wild swings of fortune that IS keeps doing.

You must be on a different server than I am. More than 70% percent of my new submissions @ SS have keywords that are not searchable or the images are missing altogether and this has been going on for an exceedingly long time.

I am constantly amazed that the majority seems to be oblivious to the recent changes that SS is making to their search engine. Trust me they are more involved than the factors you mentioned.

On the contrary new images sell at DT and I have never once had an issue with keywords that are not searchable let alone missing images.

I was wondering why I am suddenly selling so much. It is awesome  They should keep it like this. Bestseller should allways be at the front 

DT started very strong this month, then died totally. No sales since the 4th! Terrible. Hope they fix the search results, as its killing my sales.

Quote from: THP on April 09, 2012, 00:13
DT started very strong this month, then died totally. No sales since the 4th! Terrible. Hope they fix the search results, as its killing my sales.

not only DT, all agencies since Thursday, hope it gets back soon, Tuesday I guess

Same here.  I had my BME last month on SS, but this month is off to a slow start.