Slippery Slope

[BaldricksTrousers]

For the individual contributer, the iStock figures are still worrying, as the gradual growth in visits is nothing like in proportion to the growth of files contributed.

For many, many years the average number of downloads per file per month has been dropping. Anyone with a long set of personal data can see that.

But now the compensating factors of cannister level jumps and rising prices leading to rising commission payments have been taken out of the equation.

One thing about these data services is that they measure whatever it is they are measuring impartially so the changes they record are real. Whether it is possible to interpret them in a meaningful way is another matter as is the question of whether their access to data has some systematic bias built in.

It's also worth noting that even if the number of buyers visiting were constant, it would say nothing about whether their budgets were increasing or decreasing and whether they were putting it all into one or two agency files when in the past they might have bought a dozen contributors files. The diversion of iStock income to Agency must do significant damage to contributor earnings.

[michealo]

For the individual contributer, the iStock figures are still worrying, as the gradual growth in visits is nothing like in proportion to the growth of files contributed.

For many, many years the average number of downloads per file per month has been dropping. Anyone with a long set of personal data can see that.

But now the compensating factors of cannister level jumps and rising prices leading to rising commission payments have been taken out of the equation.

One thing about these data services is that they measure whatever it is they are measuring impartially so the changes they record are real. Whether it is possible to interpret them in a meaningful way is another matter as is the question of whether their access to data has some systematic bias built in.

It's also worth noting that even if the number of buyers visiting were constant, it would say nothing about whether their budgets were increasing or decreasing and whether they were putting it all into one or two agency files when in the past they might have bought a dozen contributors files. The diversion of iStock income to Agency must do significant damage to contributor earnings.

A good point, and another appropriate parallel would be seeing the first page of results of an image search being like the eye level shelf in a supermarket, there are other shelves and other pages but the eye level shelf is where highest margin goods are placed. Increasingly this "shelf" has become filled with Agency and Vetta files, it is not surprising that this displacement is having an effect particularly if one does not have files in these collections.

[cathyslife]

I like that netcraft says IS is in the Netherlands.

IS use Akamai to mirror their content and Akamai have a worldwide network of 73,000 edge servers to deploy content ...

When you access the site some or all off the content is served by Akamai from a server that is located near you (near meaning with low likelihood of latency) that is why you will see the locations varying from time to time
 

I'm not sure why the location of the servers should have anything to do with where it shows istock's location. It just proves how unreliable some of the things on the internet are.

Lot's of information on the internet is unreliable, however a tool reporting that a server is located in the Netherlands when it actually is isn't unreliable.

Except the poster didn't say the server was in the Netherlands, he said the site is reporting that istock is in the Netherlands.    Didn't he? But thanks for making your point. I got your message, loud and clear.