Author Topic: Dramatic best match changes... (Read 11827 times)

hatman12 · « **on:** November 23, 2007, 14:34 »

It appears that from now on, no contributor can have more than two results in the first 100 search results.

vonkara · « **Reply #1 on:** November 23, 2007, 15:16 »

It's make some people who talk about these changes...Could you give where you pick that? I have a very good month there and I wonder to know exactly why, I'm curious about that.

zorki · « **Reply #2 on:** November 23, 2007, 15:16 »

I just tried it an that's not what's happening. I searched on "picnic table" and Tacojim has three in the first twenty. Is this something they want to implement in the future? Plus what happens if you have less than 100 in a search and it's dominated by a couple of contributors...

sharply_done · « **Reply #3 on:** November 23, 2007, 15:22 »

Quote from: Vonkara on November 23, 2007, 15:16

...Could you give where you pick that? ...

The thread on IS is here.

zorki · « **Reply #4 on:** November 23, 2007, 15:27 »

Hmmm... I see that thread, but if it's supposed to be in effect it's not working yet...

sharply_done · « **Reply #5 on:** November 23, 2007, 15:29 »

Quote from: zorki on November 23, 2007, 15:16

I just tried it an that's not what's happing. I searched on "picnic table" and Tacojim has three in the first twenty.

Better look closer ... my "picnic table" search shows only 2 by tacojim.
A search in my market niche shows only 2 of my files in the top 100 (in 3rd & 4th place - yay for me!), where there used to be over a dozen. One of my shots is also in 101st place, which gives me a little bonus.

This best match search is definitely in place. My IS sales were down by about 50% yesterday and today isn't looking much better, but that may due to the big American holiday. As to how this search change will affect sales in the long run, we'll just have to wait and see.

zorki · « **Reply #6 on:** November 23, 2007, 15:34 »

Argh!

Ignore me... I had multiple browers open at once and somehow this one got set to "Downloads"

This brings up something else... Did you see Abzee's comment about inserting "artichoke" into the keywords of one of his world map files. If you search on "artichoke" it is the fourth in best match search. I'm not sure what that tells me, but there is something about his status at IS that ranks this file high in best match.

leaf · « **Reply #7 on:** November 23, 2007, 16:49 »

that sounds like a welcomed change.

araminta · « **Reply #8 on:** November 23, 2007, 17:57 »

I've just started contributing to Alamy and think their "Alamy ranking" is very clever: IS and other micro sites should implement something similar in their best match or whatever algorithm.

Contributor ranking is computed as "nb of thumbnails views / (nb of full views + nb of sales)". The lower, the better.

This idea is nice to prevent keyword spamming as in this case, you will have many thumbnails views from search results, but only a few full views/purchases which will put your pictures further in search results.

Sounds good to me.

madelaide · « **Reply #9 on:** November 23, 2007, 18:26 »

Nice change, although maybe a bit radical (just two of the same contributor). I'll check how some of my best-sellers perform.

Regards,
Adelaide

GeoPappas · « **Reply #10 on:** November 23, 2007, 18:46 »

I can't believe that they are making such a drastic change during the Christmas rush for the second year in a row.

zorki · « **Reply #11 on:** November 23, 2007, 19:44 »

Yes... it's a good reason to stay diversified amongst many different agencies.

digiology · « **Reply #12 on:** November 23, 2007, 22:29 »

I am very pleased!

cdwheatley · « **Reply #13 on:** November 23, 2007, 22:33 »

It appears that the "niche guys" and people with large portfolios are going to take a beating with this one. Perhaps this is just a temporary fix until they figure something else out??

Personally I like the idea of beefing up security. I know some people might be happy with the new change, but If you shoot nothing but beaches and women or Ice bergs because you live in Alaska, its going to hurt. Surely there must be a better solution?

phildate · « **Reply #14 on:** November 23, 2007, 23:21 »

I am worried about this...although the way IS has been going for me since they first changed the best match, I am not surprised and am glad that other agencies still beat IS for income each month.

yingyang0 · « **Reply #15 on:** November 24, 2007, 00:56 »

I know my idea will get lost in the IS thread but here is how I'd fix the problem:

Algorithm: For the first month the image is available for download you make the value given to the dl/mo variable equal to the corresponding value on an exponential growth curve. So the first download would be worth 0, second 1, third 2, forth 4, fifth 8, etc. This value would have to be normalized according to whatever value you give to other secret variables in the best match algorithm.

The algorithm would make it cost prohibitive to download the image enough to game the system, while allowing truly good images to shine. After the first month the algorithm could go back to what it was before. Criticisms welcome.

thesentinel · « **Reply #16 on:** November 24, 2007, 04:31 »

I'd say out of all the ideas I've seen thrown up this is by far the most subtle, make sure you punt it in the current lead thread on this, I don't recall seeing it there.

I've been appalled by this situation a real kick in the teeth for anyone who dares to do well in a given niche.

Quote from: yingyang0 on November 24, 2007, 00:56

I know my idea will get lost in the IS thread but here is how I'd fix the problem:

Algorithm: For the first month the image is available for download you make the value given to the dl/mo variable equal to the corresponding value on an exponential growth curve. So the first download would be worth 0, second 1, third 2, forth 4, fifth 8, etc. This value would have to be normalized according to whatever value you give to other secret variables in the best match algorithm.

The algorithm would make it cost prohibitive to download the image enough to game the system, while allowing truly good images to shine. After the first month the algorithm could go back to what it was before. Criticisms welcome.

Freezingpictures · « **Reply #17 on:** November 24, 2007, 04:51 »

I fear that will be very very bad for me, since I am a niche photographer with almost all my good sellers in the top 100 search results of one particular niche. And they were there, because they are one of the best of this particular niche and not because I cheated the system. :-(

DanP68 · « **Reply #18 on:** November 26, 2007, 01:00 »

I too am a niche photographer. I assume this will hit me hard, but I really don't know. It may actually bring sales up in other categories to the point where my overall sales will even out.

But that's not the point. The fact that they are doing something this drastic, and this desperate, is what troubles me. They have identified a real problem. But once again their solution seems so extreme and without forethought.

To think 1 month ago I was dead set on going exclusive with iStockphoto. A month later, Shutterstock has passed iStockphoto in overall portfolio earnings for the first time ever, and now yet another humongous change has been made to the best match.

They just cannot leave well enough alone. Nor can they seemingly make cautious tweaks. Every move is performed with a sledge hammer.

kosmikkreeper · « **Reply #19 on:** November 26, 2007, 08:54 »

WOW! Now I get why my sale fell dramatically last week! Monday was a record day for me on IS and the rest for the week, my sales were down 30% from my average. For me 30% is a lot of $$$. Let's hope things pick up again or else I'll be loosing hundreds of $$/month because of this.

ichiro17 · « **Reply #20 on:** November 26, 2007, 09:10 »

I'm not too worried because of the fact that designers just need to learn how to use the new system. Every time they make a change, sales dip, then they find out how it works for them and I go back to regular downloads.

thesentinel · « **Reply #21 on:** November 26, 2007, 11:05 »

Quote from: kosmikkreeper on November 26, 2007, 08:54

WOW! Now I get why my sale fell dramatically last week! Monday was a record day for me on IS and the rest for the week, my sales were down 30% from my average. For me 30% is a lot of $$$. Let's hope things pick up again or else I'll be loosing hundreds of $$/month because of this.

Nothing to do with Thanksgiving holiday in the US then?!

Read_My_Rights · « **Reply #22 on:** November 26, 2007, 11:11 »

As long as the designers realize that there are more top rated pictures after result 100 not much has been lost to the niche photographers. Perhaps it even encourages them to browse somebodies portfolio in order to find similar images.

lathspell · « **Reply #23 on:** November 26, 2007, 11:41 »

Quote from: kosmikkreeper on November 26, 2007, 08:54

Monday was a record day for me on IS and the rest for the week, my sales were down 30% from my average.

best match changed on Thursday, so it could not have been affected Tuesday and Wednesday results ...

kosmikkreeper · « **Reply #24 on:** November 26, 2007, 15:36 »

so maybe it was Thanks Giving then... I sure hope so! We'll see this week.

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Author Topic: Dramatic best match changes... (Read 11827 times)

hatman12

vonkara

zorki

sharply_done

zorki

sharply_done

zorki

leaf

araminta

madelaide

GeoPappas

zorki

digiology

cdwheatley

phildate

yingyang0

thesentinel

Freezingpictures

DanP68

kosmikkreeper

ichiro17

thesentinel

Read_My_Rights

lathspell

kosmikkreeper

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