What's kinda weird for me is that my search placement for most of my files are either a little better or way better but my sales are pretty sluggish so far today.

I think it will take a week or two to see how this affects sales. I'm sure some buyers find and buy files the same day but I'd guess most find a file, save it, comp it, and then come back and buy it days or weeks later.

Quote from: melastmohican on April 15, 2009, 23:30
What's a difference between granola and muesli?

If you asked for granola in Australia people would look at you with a blank expression....

What do you think happens, if I add some keywords after the file is approved? I usually revisit my newly approved files when I have time to fine-tune my keywords. Do those newly added keywords (or some being removed or DA'ed differently, etc) have an impact on existing keywords? What do you think?

And do you think it is better to have smaller amount of keywords in order for them to have "more weight"? Or it doesn't matter on IS?

Quote from: Magnum on April 15, 2009, 23:52A "Good best match" is when that person finds HIS images in the top.

You've got it. My 'lesbian brides' are back, 4 shots, in the top 16 (after being nowhere a month ago). I can't help noticing that position 3 and 4 are taken by shots with zero downloads (the only ones like that on page 1) from an exclusive contributor. So it can't be view count (mine is 10x as high) nor downloads alone that do the trick. Would it be a wild guess that there is a tiny bias towards exclusives? 

Quote from: holgs on April 17, 2009, 10:13If you asked for granola in Australia people would look at you with a blank expression....

I thought before that "granola" was a kind of pianola played by grandmas. This site is so instructive about food terms. First "Ćevapčići' and now "Granola" 

Quote from: FlemishDreams on April 18, 2009, 11:04

Quote from: Magnum on April 15, 2009, 23:52A "Good best match" is when that person finds HIS images in the top.

You've got it. My 'lesbian brides' are back, 4 shots, in the top 16 (after being nowhere a month ago). I can't help noticing that position 3 and 4 are taken by shots with zero downloads (the only ones like that on page 1) from an exclusive contributor. So it can't be view count (mine is 10x as high) nor downloads alone that do the trick. Would it be a wild guess that there is a tiny bias towards exclusives? 

Isn't it more likely that the ones with zero downloads (I assume you mean those rather odd ones with the gun) are ahead of yours because they're the more recent?

Quote from: Gannet77 on April 18, 2009, 13:52Isn't it more likely that the ones with zero downloads (I assume you mean those rather odd ones with the gun) are ahead of yours because they're the more recent?

I didn't look at that. Possible. I'm just trying to figure out what makes Istock's search engine ticking. For DT I have already a good idea. It might also be the keywords.

Quote from: loop on April 16, 2009, 01:52
Results are extremely accurate. Downloads are flowing. What more can be asked?

This depends on what keywords you use. If you do a search for wigwam you only get 7 wigwams out of 55 results for the word. On a good note at least "boy reading" no longer has an image of 2 women in a kitchen talking with an out of focus adult male in the background with a book on the first page of that search.

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on April 16, 2009, 18:05
What's kinda weird for me is that my search placement for most of my files are either a little better or way better but my sales are pretty sluggish so far today.

Similar experience here. Sales are about normal but I'm hoping with better search placement things will improve starting next week (wishful thinking). 

Quote from: cdwheatley on April 18, 2009, 22:30

Quote from: PaulieWalnuts on April 16, 2009, 18:05
What's kinda weird for me is that my search placement for most of my files are either a little better or way better but my sales are pretty sluggish so far today.

Similar experience here. Sales are about normal but I'm hoping with better search placement things will improve starting next week (wishful thinking). 

Well it's a couple days later and sales are still a bit below normal. I've been checking more files and I got a pretty nice boost from this new best match overall. But things started slowing down for me late last week so I'm hoping it's the holidays. At my day job it seems like a ton of people are on vacation.

Yep!  agree.  Its possibly the most accurate search right now. Lets hope it stays that way and not run the risk of being infiltrated by spamming.
Its in all our interest to keep it "clean"

The thing about the new search is that the same file will be ranked differently if searched for using different keywords. I have an image of a temple in Tokyo at night - if you search under "Tokyo" there are several similar images that appear before it and out of 2908 results its not on the first few pages. A search for "tokyo temple" and its on the second line, but still behind similar images, but again behind similar images (301 in the search). If you do a search for "temple night" its the no.2 hit, with similar images ranked behind it.

How the search will go long term is anyone's guess at the moment.

You would expect that the composite of two keyword searches would be different than an individual keyword search on either of the terms...  I mean, I would.