I don't recall that - only some vague examples about showing the right nationality if "flag" was used as a search term. Do you have a link to the details?

Well, 'flag' certainly doesn't work. So the thread describing the wonders of this scheme is probably missing in the same way that people went missing from official Soviet photos in Stalin's day. You can always airbrush away your mistakes.

Lisa - from my understanding, that's not how the regional results work. your comment makes a big ( and I believe incorrect) assumption about how the regional sort works. there was a thread in the iStock forum in which the way it will work was described in detail. I'm trying to find the thread for you where they discussed the regional sort and how it would work in theory, but it's not coming up in any searches. bizarre. anyone know if the regional search is actually live? or have they taken all mentions of regional search results back into the 'classified arena'.

Thanks for trying to find it for me.   I haven't been in the Istock forums a lot lately. 

I certainly hope I am wrong and my images aren't being kept out of searches outside North America, just because I am located here.  I see my work "in action" from all over the world.  I am sure most of us have the same experience. 

Has the dust settled?  My sales are down 25-30% this week. 

Don't forget that the Easter vacation period has already started in much of Europe. I think we can expect a quiet couple of weeks on all agencies.

Don't forget that the Easter vacation period has already started in much of Europe. I think we can expect a quiet couple of weeks on all agencies.

Thanks for the reminder.  Easter/Spring Break was slow for me last year.  Now at least I will be prepared.

Quote from: gostwyck on April 14, 2011, 16:06

Don't forget that the Easter vacation period has already started in much of Europe. I think we can expect a quiet couple of weeks on all agencies.

Thanks for the reminder.  Easter/Spring Break was slow for me last year.  Now at least I will be prepared.

Well, it may appear to be Easter on iStock but it sure as hell isn't Easter on SS.

In the last three days I've had about 40% of my usual monthly earnings on 123 and CanStockPhoto has been producing several sales a day instead of one or two.

It may not stay this way, but as this week has progressed, sales have been returning to the land of the living at IS (for me). Nothing really great (i.e. no big spike over prior good days) but massively better than the prior week (which was grim). Obviously I hope this means that their "tweaks" are moving in the right direction

More or less the opposite for me. Wednesday was the best day Dls wise I've had for a while. Yesterday went dead after about 6pm here (UK). Today is like a Sunday! The funny thing is that on the previous Monday after the first big change I had a reasonable day.
To be honest, I can't see any rhyme or reason in it any longer. All I do know is that overall I'm looking well down this week, but even so only "really bad" not "totally disasterous"

To answer my own question, here's the words straight from the horse's mouth (sort of - it's via that Canon article where KKT was interviewed), so we have to take it with a grain of salt, considering he thinks all the contributors only sell stock to buy a new lens cap:

"Thompson also clearly has an eye on the long-term benefits of the site's search engine � which has recently been overhauled. He describes it as �awesome� in delivering results based on a customer/client's location."

So it's supposed to be based on a client's location. So so stupid. Not all a designer's clients are local. Can they really be *that* dumb at iStock? (rhetorical question, of course)

To answer my own question, here's the words straight from the horse's mouth (sort of - it's via that Canon article where KKT was interviewed), so we have to take it with a grain of salt, considering he thinks all the contributors only sell stock to buy a new lens cap:

"Thompson also clearly has an eye on the long-term benefits of the site's search engine � which has recently been overhauled. He describes it as �awesome� in delivering results based on a customer/client's location."

So it's supposed to be based on a client's location. So so stupid. Not all a designer's clients are local. Can they really be *that* dumb at iStock? (rhetorical question, of course)

You know, I hadn't really thought of that -- haven't bought stock for a remote client in a while -- but yeah, imagine if you worked in the travel industry or did design work for a multi-national? Pain in the ass.

... When you consider the team size and level of expertise that the big dogs (Google and Microsoft) have working on this sort of search engine behavior, it does make me wonder why a small subsidiary of a stock photo company would take this on.

Istock/Getty do have form in this regard. Uniquely they force users to seach for their products with their special Controlled Vocabulary. Google stayed well clear of that idea (as well as all the other stock agencies and every other business on the web).

Quote from: caspixel on April 15, 2011, 13:50

To answer my own question, here's the words straight from the horse's mouth (sort of - it's via that Canon article where KKT was interviewed), so we have to take it with a grain of salt, considering he thinks all the contributors only sell stock to buy a new lens cap:

"Thompson also clearly has an eye on the long-term benefits of the site's search engine � which has recently been overhauled. He describes it as �awesome� in delivering results based on a customer/client's location."

So it's supposed to be based on a client's location. So so stupid. Not all a designer's clients are local. Can they really be *that* dumb at iStock? (rhetorical question, of course)

totally... especially if I have a web developer working in Thailand but contracted to work on a site based out of the U.S.  Did they forget why the marketplace they sell in is called the WORLD WIDE Web?

Kelly needs to put the pipe down. Every time I'm tasked with shopping for photos, I see/feel the buyer's pain. Having spent all week now, several hours each day, searching for luxury travel-related images, I must say that iStock's search tool is the antithesis of awesome.

Why, for the love of god, for example, am I being shown THE SAME images every other page? Even when I dump best match sort in favor of sort by age? Not that it should matter how one is sorting. If you showed me an image once and I didn't buy it or add it to a lightbox, putting it in front of me two, three, five, fifteen times or more isn't going to do anything but piss me the eff off.

And the spam. By god the spam. It's so out of control. And it's not just random contributors. It's big names. Not cool. And clearly deliberate. And clearly they get away with it because of who they are. In speaking to another iStock contributor about this very issue, I was informed that when this person tried to fairly Wiki an inspector's file - someone who is just out of control with the spamming - the Wiki went away within hours. Nothing was done. Zap. Gone. File remains, spam and all. No favoritism, my arse. Spamming can seriously help . out of a file, as we all know.

There are others, but those would have to be my top two beefs with IS search. Those and I'd love to be able to nix all the Vetta and Agency files, of course. We don't have the budget for such lavish spending on photos, and coupled with the other two issues I mentioned, it's adding to a serious waste of my time. Which, for my company, is money.

Quote from: jamirae on April 15, 2011, 14:07

Quote from: caspixel on April 15, 2011, 13:50

To answer my own question, here's the words straight from the horse's mouth (sort of - it's via that Canon article where KKT was interviewed), so we have to take it with a grain of salt, considering he thinks all the contributors only sell stock to buy a new lens cap:

"Thompson also clearly has an eye on the long-term benefits of the site's search engine � which has recently been overhauled. He describes it as �awesome� in delivering results based on a customer/client's location."

So it's supposed to be based on a client's location. So so stupid. Not all a designer's clients are local. Can they really be *that* dumb at iStock? (rhetorical question, of course)

totally... especially if I have a web developer working in Thailand but contracted to work on a site based out of the U.S.  Did they forget why the marketplace they sell in is called the WORLD WIDE Web?

Kelly needs to put the pipe down. Every time I'm tasked with shopping for photos, I see/feel the buyer's pain. Having spent all week now, several hours each day, searching for luxury travel-related images, I must say that iStock's search tool is the antithesis of awesome.

Why, for the love of god, for example, am I being shown THE SAME images every other page? Even when I dump best match sort in favor of sort by age? Not that it should matter how one is sorting. If you showed me an image once and I didn't buy it or add it to a lightbox, putting it in front of me two, three, five, fifteen times or more isn't going to do anything but piss me the eff off.

And the spam. By god the spam. It's so out of control. And it's not just random contributors. It's big names. Not cool. And clearly deliberate. And clearly they get away with it because of who they are. In speaking to another iStock contributor about this very issue, I was informed that when this person tried to fairly Wiki an inspector's file - someone who is just out of control with the spamming - the Wiki went away within hours. Nothing was done. Zap. Gone. File remains, spam and all. No favoritism, my arse. Spamming can seriously help . out of a file, as we all know.

There are others, but those would have to be my top two beefs with IS search. Those and I'd love to be able to nix all the Vetta and Agency files, of course. We don't have the budget for such lavish spending on photos, and coupled with the other two issues I mentioned, it's adding to a serious waste of my time. Which, for my company, is money.

I don't know what you mean by seeing the SAME images every other page. identical images? how does that happen? I just did a search on "travel and luxury" and the best match results were good. a mix of V/A and main collections. I'm just trying to see what you're reporting.