Author Topic: Another Massive Best Match Shift (Read 272934 times)

gostwyck · « **on:** December 21, 2011, 11:14 »

Just noticed that there appears to have been a massive further shift in the best match to favour exclusives __ it is now almost entirely exclusive images first followed by those from independent contributors afterwards. Incredible.

Istock must be getting desperate to hang on to their exclusives and/or make more money.

KB · « **Reply #1 on:** December 21, 2011, 11:19 »

You are not exaggerating. That's the largest weighting towards exclusives that I have ever seen.

Also, new files are given very high priority in this best match.

I doubt it will last long like this, but it does appear to be a move to try to get some exclusives over their stupid thresholds. (All it will do is get some people over, and make some oh-so-close but not quite over.) The idea of discrete zones so far apart is totally insane.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #2 on:** December 21, 2011, 11:31 »

That's a huge change.

One of the searches I look at is San Antonio. There are 621 photos and one of mine is #6 by downloads and until today, has typically been somewhere in the first 5 or so by Best Match.

Today it's somewhere near the bottom of the second page of 200 and the whole first page of 200 is exclusive files. Unless I missed when scanning the page, all the images have a crown!

Even funnier, if I search for driftwood there are 3,123 photos and one of mine is #2 by downloads. It has been floating around on the first page by best match - it used to be on the top line. Today it's just past the 2,000 mark and the first 1,400 images are all exclusive! They have old (2007) zero download images from exclusives higher up than independent files that have actually sold.

This truly makes it clear that best match has zero to do with helping buyers find what they need better but is just a tool for the agency to see if they can't meet some goal or other of their own.

I can't wait to read the official explanations for why this is a good thing. If it actually helps boost sales at the site overall, that'd be one thing, but if it just drives more buyers away because they don't like what they see in searches, we all end up taking the hit in the long run. Tossers!

pancaketom · « **Reply #3 on:** December 21, 2011, 11:33 »

perhaps buyers will learn to search by age or downloads instead of "best" match?

jcpjr · « **Reply #4 on:** December 21, 2011, 11:40 »

What a joke they've become...My last D/L was on Dec. 9th and paid a lousy 9 cents. After 6 years with them I've all but given up hope.

Snufkin · « **Reply #5 on:** December 21, 2011, 11:42 »

I have a file that has been selling 60-70 times / month.
Since July it has earned them over 2000 $ and occupied one of the top spots in best match, they even selected it for a lightbox maintained by their staff.
Now this file is gone, I checked the first 30 pages.
That is ridiculous, they must be desparate.

markrhiggins · « **Reply #6 on:** December 21, 2011, 11:58 »

I have noticed that new files are buried to th extent that it is not worth uploading, Old stuff buyers may find by downloads but clearly they do want new independent content. Any new contributors would be best advised to save there efforts for elsewhere. If you are a new contributor IS is clearly middle to poosible lower tier sales (as it will be for all bar exclusives)

gostwyck · « **Reply #7 on:** December 21, 2011, 12:07 »

Quote from: markrhiggins on December 21, 2011, 11:58

I have noticed that new files are buried to th extent that it is not worth uploading, Old stuff buyers may find by downloads but clearly they do want new independent content. Any new contributors would be best advised to save there efforts for elsewhere. If you are a new contributor IS is clearly middle to poosible lower tier sales (as it will be for all bar exclusives)

I'd agree. Under these circumstances it is almost pointless for independent contributors to upload new images to Istock.

traveler1116 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 21, 2011, 12:10 »

It looks the opposite to me, new files are all up front in the searches I've done. Old files with lots of sales on the other hand seem to be pushed back.

gostwyck · « **Reply #9 on:** December 21, 2011, 12:18 »

Quote from: traveler1116 on December 21, 2011, 12:10

It looks the opposite to me, new files are all up front in the searches I've done. Old files with lots of sales on the other hand seem to be pushed back.

Exclusive new images are up front __ but not those from independent contributors. The current best match is promoting multiple similar new images from the same exclusive contributors.

traveler1116 · « **Reply #10 on:** December 21, 2011, 12:29 »

Quote from: gostwyck on December 21, 2011, 12:18

Quote from: traveler1116 on December 21, 2011, 12:10
It looks the opposite to me, new files are all up front in the searches I've done. Old files with lots of sales on the other hand seem to be pushed back.

Exclusive new images are up front __ but not those from independent contributors. The current best match is promoting multiple similar new images from the same exclusive contributors.

That's true it is just exclusive files up front the two searches I did had 200/200 exclusive files in front and those are sorted by newest for the most part.

stockastic · « **Reply #11 on:** December 21, 2011, 12:34 »

It seems that unless you're exclusive, you're unlikely to sell anything. And until you've sold 250, you can't become exclusive.

What happens when all the current exclusives get old and die? Is IS assuming they'll pass their accounts to their children?

RT · « **Reply #12 on:** December 21, 2011, 12:49 »

Quite incredible. I have an image that on iS and every other microstock site is the highest downloaded image for a certain keyword, on all the previous best match changes it's still always appeared in the first five pages, in this recent change I gave up checking after 200 out of the 671 pages of images for this particular keyword, every page was full of 'exclusive' only images of which a vast majority didn't even feature the particular item for the keyword search.

Well if iStockphoto didn't want to lose business before they sure as hell will do now. I don't normally subscribe to conspiracy theories but I genuinely now do believe somebody in the Getty/iStock management wants to kill the site off.

CarlssonInc · « **Reply #13 on:** December 21, 2011, 13:07 »

Obviously this has to be a bug, a mistake. I'm sure it will be back to a "normal" well represented Best Match quite soon. No need for panic.

blamb · « **Reply #14 on:** December 21, 2011, 13:10 »

If there's one thing exclusives love, it's being favoured at the one time of the year when nobody is buying.

ShadySue · « **Reply #15 on:** December 21, 2011, 13:23 »

Quote from: stockastic on December 21, 2011, 12:34

What happens when all the current exclusives get old and die? Is IS assuming they'll pass their accounts to their children?

They probably hope they won't!

fujiko · « **Reply #16 on:** December 21, 2011, 13:24 »

A Best Match shift?

That's strange!

fotoVoyager · « **Reply #17 on:** December 21, 2011, 13:27 »

Quote from: blamb on December 21, 2011, 13:10

If there's one thing exclusives love, it's being favoured at the one time of the year when nobody is buying.

Ha!

This latest shift isn't doing me any good despite being exclusive because it's so weighted towards new files. My test searches for locations I've shot show that if I haven't uploaded images from there in the past few weeks, I ain't gonna be selling any, any time soon.

Who knows who's benefitting from this version.

gostwyck · « **Reply #18 on:** December 21, 2011, 13:30 »

Quote from: CarlssonInc. Stock Imagery Production on December 21, 2011, 13:07

Obviously this has to be a bug, a mistake. I'm sure it will be back to a "normal" well represented Best Match quite soon. No need for panic.

I don't think it is a 'bug'. I think it is a ill-thought-out, knee-jerk reaction to an ever-increasing number of exclusives dropping the crown as sales tumble. We've heard from quite a few disgruntled individuals already on MSG and I can't imagine that they're alone. Maybe it is intended to be a temporary 'fix' to help exclusives attain their RC targets but it's probably too little, too late for many. This smacks of an act of desperation for a company whose business is irretrievably on the slide. If I were exclusive I wouldn't be rejoicing, I'd be worried about the future.

PaulieWalnuts · « **Reply #19 on:** December 21, 2011, 13:55 »

Quote from: gostwyck on December 21, 2011, 13:30

Quote from: CarlssonInc. Stock Imagery Production on December 21, 2011, 13:07
Obviously this has to be a bug, a mistake. I'm sure it will be back to a "normal" well represented Best Match quite soon. No need for panic.

I don't think it is a 'bug'. I think it is a ill-thought-out, knee-jerk reaction to an ever-increasing number of exclusives dropping the crown as sales tumble. We've heard from quite a few disgruntled individuals already on MSG and I can't imagine that they're alone. Maybe it is intended to be a temporary 'fix' to help exclusives attain their RC targets but it's probably too little, too late for many. This smacks of an act of desperation for a company whose business is irretrievably on the slide. If I were exclusive I wouldn't be rejoicing, I'd be worried about the future.

Could be. I'm exclusive and I'll wait to see how this plays out. If the income from all my old stuff drops significantly then I'll be forced to focus my business and time elsewhere. We'll see.

WarrenPrice · « **Reply #20 on:** December 21, 2011, 14:10 »

I'm fairly new at (don't know much about) iStock. It does seem that sales are subject to certain cycles or periods of time. I also notice this phenomena at DT and SS, especially DT. I guess my question is:
don't all the outlets change their search engines periodically?

scottdunlap · « **Reply #21 on:** December 21, 2011, 14:20 »

Massive doesn't do it justice. Older files don't have a chance. I had the number one slot for a couple of years for the keyword "icon set." The file is less than 3 years old, and has sold almost 9000 times. Where is it listed now? Almost 4000 images back.
This one is gonna hurt.

loop · « **Reply #22 on:** December 21, 2011, 14:26 »

Maybe they want to put fresh and unseen at any other competitor site content on front. Probably too early to say but, for the moment, it works well for me (btw, I reached my RC time ago, no need of help). I suppose newer exclusives, specially factories, are way more favored. On the other hand, Vetta and Agency seem pushed back. I've observed that when V & A are on front, maybe I sell less, but I earn more. Anyway BMs are not forever at istock, another shifts in the future will benefit another people.

ShadySue · « **Reply #23 on:** December 21, 2011, 14:34 »

Quote from: loop on December 21, 2011, 14:26

Maybe they want to put fresh and unseen at any other competitor site content on front. Probably too early to say but, for the moment, it works well for me (btw, I reached my RC time ago, no need of help). I suppose newer exclusives, specially factories, are way more favored. On the other hand, Vetta and Agency seem pushed back. I've observed that when V & A are on front, maybe I sell less, but I earn more. Anyway BMs are not forever at istock, another shifts in the future will benefit another people.

Again, there must be different algorithms for different search terms.
'Elephant' is still dominated by CSA_Images' Vetta cartoons, as is 'zoo', where the top 32 hits are CSA's Vetta cartoons.
'Telesales' still has a lot of Clerkenwell_Images' Agency images at the top.

BTW, by sheer chance I noticed that there were two huge best match changes within about half an hour of each other yesterday evening UK time, but now it's back to the same or almost the same as the first iteration (sorry Race) in the searches I checked.

cathyslife · « **Reply #24 on:** December 21, 2011, 14:36 »

Quote from: blamb on December 21, 2011, 13:10

If there's one thing exclusives love, it's being favoured at the one time of the year when nobody is buying.

LOL!

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Author Topic: Another Massive Best Match Shift (Read 272934 times)

gostwyck

KB

Jo Ann Snover

pancaketom

jcpjr

Snufkin

markrhiggins

gostwyck

traveler1116

gostwyck

traveler1116

stockastic

RT

CarlssonInc

blamb

ShadySue

fujiko

fotoVoyager

gostwyck

PaulieWalnuts

WarrenPrice

scottdunlap

loop

ShadySue

cathyslife

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