Author Topic: Fresh Match (Read 8712 times)

ShadySue · « **on:** September 23, 2013, 16:00 »

A new sort option to sit alongside New, Best Match and Popular.

"We've added a new sort to the Search Grid. We've prepared a few key points to provide you with some earlier answers to the questions we are sure you will have:

How is Fresh Match different from Best Match?
Best Match is a multi-layered algorithm that returns our most relevant search results in a “mix” that balances price tiers, exclusivity and popularity among many other factors.
Fresh Match starts with the same most relevant results, but simply sorts them by Date Uploaded (newest first).

Why the Try It flag?
The Fresh Match concept promises a fresh mix of relevant content for popular, single-word searches, but can sometime return older assets for obscure or multi-word searches: If our most relevant “Ninja Penguin” is from 2012, it will still display as the first image in Fresh Match (it’s not fresh itself, but it is our freshest most relevant asset).
The Try It flag reflects our strategy for this new Sort. We are going to let customers try it for a while and watch the analytics. If customers are drawn to this new sort option, we will continue to evolve the technology underneath it to improve its delivery of our Freshest content."

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=356442&page=1

Still no incentive to upload new, well-keyworded images, when they'll still sink rapidly, even instantly in the Best Match, so will have little chance to gain any relevancy for either the best match or the FM, and in many cases are lost among many spammily tagged images in the New search.

Ron · « **Reply #1 on:** September 23, 2013, 16:13 »

If all new files sink down, who's files are on top then? I dont get how that works? Someone has to have his files on top. So someone must see their files in the best match. Why are yours sinking? Is everyone else having the same problem?

KB · « **Reply #2 on:** September 23, 2013, 16:21 »

Quote from: Ron on September 23, 2013, 16:13

If all new files sink down, who's files are on top then? I dont get how that works? Someone has to have his files on top. So someone must see their files in the best match. Why are yours sinking? Is everyone else having the same problem?

I am.

I UL'd a file about a week ago and just checked its best match position today (doing a search on its #1 keyword): 206 out of 249.

There's no point in UL'ing new material at this time.

ETA: Ironically enough, via "Fresh Match" sort, it falls to #228 of 249!

ShadySue · « **Reply #3 on:** September 23, 2013, 16:34 »

Quote from: Ron on September 23, 2013, 16:13

If all new files sink down, who's files are on top then? I dont get how that works? Someone has to have his files on top. So someone must see their files in the best match. Why are yours sinking? Is everyone else having the same problem?

In Best Match, files sink rapidly (in most searches) until they have ten sales, whereupon they are deemed to have acquired some keyword relevance. If there are only a few files with the most relevant keyword, that's hardly an issue.
The same problem has been reported on various threads over there since last September. If you look even at most high-selling contributors' (certainly photographers) ports, you'll see that new files are getting very few sales. Once or twice I've seen what seemed to be recent sales, then I found that it was a tog who hadn't uploaded in well over a year. No doubt the pseudo-exclusives don't fall into this category, but I don't check these searches.

Fresh Match (based on only three random searches) seems to be returning first a batch of sellers, sorted more or less by age, then a swathe of new files, then older files.

ShadySue · « **Reply #4 on:** September 23, 2013, 16:43 »

Quote from: KB on September 23, 2013, 16:21

Quote from: Ron on September 23, 2013, 16:13
If all new files sink down, who's files are on top then? I dont get how that works? Someone has to have his files on top. So someone must see their files in the best match. Why are yours sinking? Is everyone else having the same problem?
I am.

I UL'd a file about a week ago and just checked its best match position today (doing a search on its #1 keyword): 206 out of 249.

There's no point in UL'ing new material at this time.

ETA: Ironically enough, via "Fresh Match" sort, it falls to #228 of 249!

And the file which became visible around lunchtime BST today is 712/4515 in Best Match, and 1362/4515 in Fresh Match.

I only searched on one keyword, not any modifiers, as Lobo said, "The Fresh Match concept promises a fresh mix of relevant content for popular, single-word searches, but can sometime return older assets for obscure or multi-word searches"

(Yeah, I know, don't submit in such popular searches. But I was shooting the pics anyway for another purpose.)

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #5 on:** September 23, 2013, 16:55 »

Bizarre. It's just confusing. Buyers can limit by time period if they want newer files. And what is 'fresh'? It's like a radio station liner from the 90's. 'the freshest mix of today's hits!'

heywoody · « **Reply #6 on:** September 23, 2013, 17:00 »

Quote from: ShadySue on September 23, 2013, 16:43

...
I only searched on one keyword, not any modifiers, as Lobo said, "The Fresh Match concept promises a fresh mix of relevant content for popular, single-word searches, but can sometime return older assets for obscure or multi-word searches"

(Yeah, I know, don't submit in such popular searches. But I was shooting the pics anyway for another purpose.)

The relevant keyword (pun intended) is highlighted.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #7 on:** September 23, 2013, 17:12 »

Well, now they have two sort methods to complain about. From the comments it seems that as long as 'your' images show up on the first page, it's working great!

If its Best Match sorted by date, then that means its just best match with the date factor turned up. Wowsers. Didn't we used to have a relevant slider?

ShadySue · « **Reply #8 on:** September 23, 2013, 17:21 »

There's one person over there who seems to be finding his new files by FM, and other who aren't and saying it's not working as described.
IMO it's working exactly as described (wow!), and offers no advantage to new files, as they haven't built up relevance.
As outlined in another thread here, there is a way of queering the keyword relevance algorhythm, but I'm not about to outline it again here.

ShadySue · « **Reply #9 on:** September 24, 2013, 03:21 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on September 23, 2013, 16:55

... And what is 'fresh'? It's like a radio station liner from the 90's. 'the freshest mix of today's hits!'

Or "A fresh look at stock images".

ajt · « **Reply #10 on:** September 24, 2013, 03:55 »

I don't know, how it works and why, but I like it.
Suddenly my old files (2003-2010) started to sell very well

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #11 on:** September 24, 2013, 09:34 »

Quote from: ajt on September 24, 2013, 03:55

...Suddenly my old files (2003-2010) started to sell very well

Fresh Match = old files start selling...

Only at iStock

tickstock · « **Reply #12 on:** September 24, 2013, 09:46 »

Ron · « **Reply #13 on:** September 24, 2013, 10:15 »

Quote from: ShadySue on September 23, 2013, 16:34

Quote from: Ron on September 23, 2013, 16:13
If all new files sink down, who's files are on top then? I dont get how that works? Someone has to have his files on top. So someone must see their files in the best match. Why are yours sinking? Is everyone else having the same problem?
In Best Match, files sink rapidly (in most searches) until they have ten sales, whereupon they are deemed to have acquired some keyword relevance. If there are only a few files with the most relevant keyword, that's hardly an issue.
The same problem has been reported on various threads over there since last September. If you look even at most high-selling contributors' (certainly photographers) ports, you'll see that new files are getting very few sales. Once or twice I've seen what seemed to be recent sales, then I found that it was a tog who hadn't uploaded in well over a year. No doubt the pseudo-exclusives don't fall into this category, but I don't check these searches.

Fresh Match (based on only three random searches) seems to be returning first a batch of sellers, sorted more or less by age, then a swathe of new files, then older files.

So why are new files dropping and they didnt a while back?

And who holds the top places then? Is that the ones with the most sales?

Sorry, I really dont get the best match search and fresh search

In fact, I dont understand one thing about IS. Their keywording, their revenue reporting, basically their everything is one big blur to me.

ShadySue · « **Reply #14 on:** September 24, 2013, 10:39 »

Quote from: Ron on September 24, 2013, 10:15

Quote from: ShadySue on September 23, 2013, 16:34
Quote from: Ron on September 23, 2013, 16:13
If all new files sink down, who's files are on top then? I dont get how that works? Someone has to have his files on top. So someone must see their files in the best match. Why are yours sinking? Is everyone else having the same problem?
In Best Match, files sink rapidly (in most searches) until they have ten sales, whereupon they are deemed to have acquired some keyword relevance. If there are only a few files with the most relevant keyword, that's hardly an issue.
The same problem has been reported on various threads over there since last September. If you look even at most high-selling contributors' (certainly photographers) ports, you'll see that new files are getting very few sales. Once or twice I've seen what seemed to be recent sales, then I found that it was a tog who hadn't uploaded in well over a year. No doubt the pseudo-exclusives don't fall into this category, but I don't check these searches.

Fresh Match (based on only three random searches) seems to be returning first a batch of sellers, sorted more or less by age, then a swathe of new files, then older files.

So why are new files dropping and they didnt a while back?

They changed the Best Match algorithm so that new files have no weighting. It used to be that best match changed pretty regularly, sometimes with new files having more, sometimes less 'time in the sun'.
Actually, it used to be fun working out what was being weighted higher in each iteration of the best match.
For whatever reason, they can't or won't improve things for new files.

KB · « **Reply #15 on:** September 24, 2013, 10:43 »

Quote from: Ron on September 24, 2013, 10:15

In fact, I dont understand one thing about IS. Their keywording, their revenue reporting, basically their everything is one big blur to me.

That pretty much sums up the situation for most people, I think.

ShadySue · « **Reply #16 on:** September 24, 2013, 11:03 »

Quote from: KB on September 24, 2013, 10:43

Quote from: Ron on September 24, 2013, 10:15
In fact, I dont understand one thing about IS. Their keywording, their revenue reporting, basically their everything is one big blur to me.
That pretty much sums up the situation for most people, I think.

And I'm sure that's exactly how they want it.
The old Mushroom Management syndrome.

StanRohrer · « **Reply #17 on:** September 24, 2013, 11:45 »

I figure SearchFairy has either been silenced or left the search team. Now nobody knows how, or is allowed, to play with the levers.

KB · « **Reply #18 on:** September 24, 2013, 13:19 »

Quote from: ShadySue on September 24, 2013, 11:03

And I'm sure that's exactly how they want it.
The old Mushroom Management syndrome.

What happen to your dial? You look like a newbie!

ShadySue · « **Reply #19 on:** September 24, 2013, 13:26 »

Quote from: KB on September 24, 2013, 13:19

Quote from: ShadySue on September 24, 2013, 11:03
And I'm sure that's exactly how they want it.
The old Mushroom Management syndrome.
What happen to your dial? You look like a newbie!

It's been returning to near-zero on and off for weeks!

Tone · « **Reply #20 on:** September 24, 2013, 13:29 »

oxman · « **Reply #21 on:** September 24, 2013, 13:40 »

I like that Getty is trying new things to improve. Sure, not perfect but FM is new so give them some time to adjust it.

rene · « **Reply #22 on:** September 24, 2013, 17:15 »

Try 'Fresh Match' with Vetta images. Yuri's fan club.
These guys are not smart, they are not even able to make things in more 'discrete' way.

ShadySue · « **Reply #23 on:** September 24, 2013, 17:20 »

Quote from: rene on September 24, 2013, 17:15

Try 'Fresh Match' with Vetta images. Yuri's fan club.
These guys are not smart, they are not even able to make things in more 'discrete' way.

They don't care about being discrete.
H*ck, they don't even care about being honest.

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Author Topic: Fresh Match (Read 8712 times)

ShadySue

Ron

KB

ShadySue

ShadySue

Sean Locke Photography

heywoody

Sean Locke Photography

ShadySue

ShadySue

ajt

Jo Ann Snover

tickstock

Ron

ShadySue

KB

ShadySue

StanRohrer

KB

ShadySue

Tone

oxman

rene

ShadySue

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