Author Topic: iStock's Alexa Rank continues to drop (Read 52079 times)

gostwyck · « **Reply #175 on:** January 04, 2013, 12:05 »

Quote from: ClaridgeJ on January 04, 2013, 11:35

Sales and revenues ar NOT falling at all. They are on their way up. Take no notice of this unreliable Alexa ranking. The demise is just malicious wishful thinking thats all.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Poncke · « **Reply #176 on:** January 04, 2013, 12:05 »

^^ Classic

gostwyck · « **Reply #177 on:** January 04, 2013, 12:12 »

Quote from: ShadySue on January 04, 2013, 11:39

I'm only quoting SearchFairy:
We’re going to start with the problem of irrelevant Agency files often flooding the search results. To that end, the Search Team is building a new “dial” to wave my wand at. They need a few days to build it and a few days to test it out, so we hope to see this change on the site the week of Jan 14th. I hate promising delivery dates because what seems simple sometimes becomes complicated, but that is the timeframe we are shooting for.

With that change in place, it will be easier to evaluate the impact of other Best Match settings. The next broad area I want to take on is the impact of File Age. We turned some dials in mid-December, but now need to finesse it to get a better mix of older and newer files.
Whether we regard the postings of employees as being truthful or honest is another question. Which is worse - incompetence or dishonesty?

Surely the issue SF is talking about is the hopelessly keyworded Agency images (or at least how they are being translated)? I don't read that she's saying the best match algorithm itself is being addressed __ unless they are attempting to automate the best match to filter out the dodgy Agency files.

ClaridgeJ · « **Reply #178 on:** January 04, 2013, 12:13 »

Quote from: gostwyck on January 04, 2013, 12:05

Quote from: ClaridgeJ on January 04, 2013, 11:35
Sales and revenues ar NOT falling at all. They are on their way up. Take no notice of this unreliable Alexa ranking. The demise is just malicious wishful thinking thats all.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ three times!

Poncke · « **Reply #179 on:** January 04, 2013, 12:18 »

Quote from: ClaridgeJ on January 04, 2013, 12:13

Quote from: gostwyck on January 04, 2013, 12:05
Quote from: ClaridgeJ on January 04, 2013, 11:35
Sales and revenues ar NOT falling at all. They are on their way up. Take no notice of this unreliable Alexa ranking. The demise is just malicious wishful thinking thats all.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ three times!

So 9 x zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ? Thats R.E.M. sleep!

BaldricksTrousers · « **Reply #180 on:** January 04, 2013, 12:21 »

Maybe some web developer can inform us about whether or not it is difficult or risky to make alterations to a search algorithm. I don't know, but given the disastrous search "upgrades" we've seen at various sites I would rather see a degree of care and caution exercised in rolling out alterations.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #181 on:** January 04, 2013, 12:30 »

looks like the Christmas season was heavy on rocks again

ClaridgeJ · « **Reply #182 on:** January 04, 2013, 12:56 »

Quote from: BaldricksTrousers on January 04, 2013, 12:21

Maybe some web developer can inform us about whether or not it is difficult or risky to make alterations to a search algorithm. I don't know, but given the disastrous search "upgrades" we've seen at various sites I would rather see a degree of care and caution exercised in rolling out alterations.

Hi Paul!

You know I have reached the conclusion that no matter what search algorithm or method. As long as agencies are constructing it just for short term profit or to save them from having to pay out too much commission, type FT, etc. then whats the point? you reach a certain level or ranking and as thanks you get way pushed back in the search instead of encouraged. How about that?
Alterations? well you can bet your bottom dollar these alterations will not benefit the indies. Although lately IS have indeed sold very well for me.

lisafx · « **Reply #183 on:** January 04, 2013, 13:47 »

Quote from: ClaridgeJ on January 04, 2013, 11:05

Quote from: aspp on January 04, 2013, 10:56
Quote from: ClaridgeJ on January 04, 2013, 09:59
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Welcome back. Bonne année.

et une bonne et heureuse année à vous aussi. Agréable d'être de retour parmi la meute.

My high school French is a bit rusty, buried as it is behind more than 20 years of attempts to learn Spanish, but I wanted to welcome you back Christian. Site was pretty tame without you

aspp · « **Reply #184 on:** January 04, 2013, 13:51 »

Quote from: gostwyck on January 04, 2013, 12:12

Surely the issue SF is talking about is the hopelessly keyworded Agency images (or at least how they are being translated)? I don't read that she's saying the best match algorithm itself is being addressed __ unless they are attempting to automate the best match to filter out the dodgy Agency files.

It is not clear that they know how the search works or even whether it is working properly. As evidenced by their various responses and statements since the best match dialogue began. It may additionally be that they have not yet defined or agreed what they want the best match to do. You cannot know whether a thing works unless you can clearly define exactly what it is supposed to do.

Perhaps it is too complicated or intricate. Perhaps the people who built the system have departed. On the Getty Employees Speak Out thread:

Quote

"Management handled the integration with Getty Images very poorly and we lost a lot of domain knowledge as a direct result."

It may be that the search is working but that the fields which the search is built upon are not recording accurately. They seem still to be saying that nothing significant has changed since September and that the way in which views are calculated has not changed (but they are going to check - which is an admission that they do not know). And views may affect best match.

On the plus side. It is a positive thing that they have been prepared to admit their uncertainty.

ClaridgeJ · « **Reply #185 on:** January 04, 2013, 14:26 »

Quote from: lisafx on January 04, 2013, 13:47

Quote from: ClaridgeJ on January 04, 2013, 11:05
Quote from: aspp on January 04, 2013, 10:56
Quote from: ClaridgeJ on January 04, 2013, 09:59
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Welcome back. Bonne année.

et une bonne et heureuse année à vous aussi. Agréable d'être de retour parmi la meute.

My high school French is a bit rusty, buried as it is behind more than 20 years of attempts to learn Spanish, but I wanted to welcome you back Christian. Site was pretty tame without you

cheers Lisa! youre a true pro! nothing seems to shake your equiliberium! well some trollope must have pushed the report button on me? never mind it was well worth it.
heard from a friend of mine you have some sort of a heatwave in Fl?
all the best Chris.

Poncke · « **Reply #186 on:** January 04, 2013, 15:26 »

You live in a state of denial

gostwyck · « **Reply #187 on:** January 04, 2013, 15:32 »

Quote from: Poncke on January 04, 2013, 15:26

You live in a state of denial

Hmm __ denial is a river in Africa as far as our man in Sweden is concerned.

ShadySue · « **Reply #188 on:** January 04, 2013, 15:44 »

Quote from: gostwyck on January 04, 2013, 12:12

Quote from: ShadySue on January 04, 2013, 11:39
I'm only quoting SearchFairy:
We’re going to start with the problem of irrelevant Agency files often flooding the search results. To that end, the Search Team is building a new “dial” to wave my wand at. They need a few days to build it and a few days to test it out, so we hope to see this change on the site the week of Jan 14th. I hate promising delivery dates because what seems simple sometimes becomes complicated, but that is the timeframe we are shooting for.

With that change in place, it will be easier to evaluate the impact of other Best Match settings. The next broad area I want to take on is the impact of File Age. We turned some dials in mid-December, but now need to finesse it to get a better mix of older and newer files.
Whether we regard the postings of employees as being truthful or honest is another question. Which is worse - incompetence or dishonesty?

Surely the issue SF is talking about is the hopelessly keyworded Agency images (or at least how they are being translated)? I don't read that she's saying the best match algorithm itself is being addressed __ unless they are attempting to automate the best match to filter out the dodgy Agency files.

Och, who knows. She may well have got her doctorate in obfuscating from iStockU. Clearly what she wrote can be interpreted in more than one way.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #189 on:** January 04, 2013, 16:27 »

Quote from: gostwyck on January 04, 2013, 15:32

Quote from: Poncke on January 04, 2013, 15:26
You live in a state of denial

Hmm __ denial is a river in Africa as far as our man in Sweden is concerned.

the problem is that the river starts in Africa and ends in Sweden

leaf · « **Reply #190 on:** January 04, 2013, 18:07 »

Quote from: luissantos84 on January 04, 2013, 16:27

Quote from: gostwyck on January 04, 2013, 15:32
Quote from: Poncke on January 04, 2013, 15:26
You live in a state of denial

Hmm __ denial is a river in Africa as far as our man in Sweden is concerned.

the problem is that the river starts in Africa and ends in Sweden

Ok. Enough of the petty back and forth jabs.

Poncke · « **Reply #191 on:** January 04, 2013, 18:14 »

I think it was just a bit of friendly banter. For me it was. Its ok though, thanks.

gostwyck · « **Reply #192 on:** January 04, 2013, 18:33 »

Quote from: leaf on January 04, 2013, 18:07

Quote from: luissantos84 on January 04, 2013, 16:27
Quote from: gostwyck on January 04, 2013, 15:32
Quote from: Poncke on January 04, 2013, 15:26
You live in a state of denial

Hmm __ denial is a river in Africa as far as our man in Sweden is concerned.

the problem is that the river starts in Africa and ends in Sweden

Ok. Enough of the petty back and forth jabs.

It's an old joke __ a play on words (denial = the Nile). No 'jabs' intended or delivered to anyone.

luissantos84 · « **Reply #193 on:** January 04, 2013, 18:52 »

Quote from: gostwyck on January 04, 2013, 18:33

Quote from: leaf on January 04, 2013, 18:07
Quote from: luissantos84 on January 04, 2013, 16:27
Quote from: gostwyck on January 04, 2013, 15:32
Quote from: Poncke on January 04, 2013, 15:26
You live in a state of denial

Hmm __ denial is a river in Africa as far as our man in Sweden is concerned.

the problem is that the river starts in Africa and ends in Sweden

Ok. Enough of the petty back and forth jabs.

It's an old joke __ a play on words (denial = the Nile). No 'jabs' intended or delivered to anyone.

I agree! shall we get back to the ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

iStop · « **Reply #194 on:** January 05, 2013, 01:10 »

An interesting analysis of iStock's traffic as at 8 December 2012:

http://www.statscrop.com/www/istockphoto.com

From the link above:

Istockphoto.com has 13 years old, it is ranked #625 in the world, a low rank means that this website gets lots of visitors. This site is worth $90,497,289 USD and advertising revenue is $17,286 USD per day. The average pages load time is 1.769 seconds, it is very fast. This site has a very good Pagernk(7/10), it has 569,100 visitors and 4,609,710 pageviews per day. Currently, this site needs more than 972.78 GB bandwidth per day, this month will needs more than 29.45 TB bandwidth. This site is Listed in DMOZ, Yahoo Directory. Its seo score is 90.5%. IP address is 74.113.152.32, and its server is hosted at Calgary, Canada. Last updated on Sat, 08 Dec 2012 07:27:19 GMT.

ClaridgeJ · « **Reply #195 on:** January 05, 2013, 02:54 »

Quote from: leaf on January 04, 2013, 18:07

Quote from: luissantos84 on January 04, 2013, 16:27
Quote from: gostwyck on January 04, 2013, 15:32
Quote from: Poncke on January 04, 2013, 15:26
You live in a state of denial

Hmm __ denial is a river in Africa as far as our man in Sweden is concerned.

the problem is that the river starts in Africa and ends in Sweden

Ok. Enough of the petty back and forth jabs.

Its Ok Tyler. Just a bit of laugh, no harm meant.

Jo Ann Snover · « **Reply #196 on:** January 05, 2013, 13:29 »

I thought I'd catch up with the iStock December +2012 sales thread this morning and though it worth noting Sean Locke's report:

"I don't even want to try and calculate this stuff anymore because it is too depressing.

Frankly, I'd prefer the December report and the yearly report split into two threads.

December 2012.
- Worst month of the year for $$ and DLs.
- 25% off $$ and 50% off downloads from December 2011.
- Worst month of the past 3 years for $$ and DLs.
- Have to go back to July 2009 for a worse month for $$$, September of 2005 for a worse month (barely) in DLs

2012
- $$$ drop 20% from 2011, DLs down 50%

Wow. "

I know this is only one contributor but he is (a) historically successful (b) actively contributing - I think he said about 2K in 2012 (c) has Vetta/Agency to prop up the $$ as DLs fall. I know he mentioned he was one of the ones who benefited from the royalty stasis move.

For me, the only question remaining is whether Getty/Carlyle wants to halt the slump at IS or if it's part of their transition plan to whatever future they see. The only reason I care at this point (other than empathy for those caught in the exclusivity trap) is that I make a fair bit at iStock in spite of their train wreck of a business and I'd like to go wherever those customers are migrating to

StanRohrer · « **Reply #197 on:** January 05, 2013, 14:14 »

Quote from: iStop on January 05, 2013, 01:10

An interesting analysis of iStock's traffic as at 8 December 2012:

http://www.statscrop.com/www/istockphoto.com

[snip]

Look at the 4 year Traffic Graph. Looks pretty much my my earnings chart.

Equus · « **Reply #198 on:** January 05, 2013, 15:16 »

Quote from: jsnover on January 05, 2013, 13:29

I thought I'd catch up with the iStock December +2012 sales thread this morning and though it worth noting Sean Locke's report:

"I don't even want to try and calculate this stuff anymore because it is too depressing.

Frankly, I'd prefer the December report and the yearly report split into two threads.

December 2012.
- Worst month of the year for $$ and DLs.
- 25% off $$ and 50% off downloads from December 2011.
- Worst month of the past 3 years for $$ and DLs.
- Have to go back to July 2009 for a worse month for $$$, September of 2005 for a worse month (barely) in DLs

2012
- $$$ drop 20% from 2011, DLs down 50%

Wow. "

I know this is only one contributor but he is (a) historically successful (b) actively contributing - I think he said about 2K in 2012 (c) has Vetta/Agency to prop up the $$ as DLs fall. I know he mentioned he was one of the ones who benefited from the royalty stasis move.

For me, the only question remaining is whether Getty/Carlyle wants to halt the slump at IS or if it's part of their transition plan to whatever future they see. The only reason I care at this point (other than empathy for those caught in the exclusivity trap) is that I make a fair bit at iStock in spite of their train wreck of a business and I'd like to go wherever those customers are migrating to

That's the million dollar question. I tend to think it must be part of their transition plan. I just can't believe that they really are as stupid as they seem.

gostwyck · « **Reply #199 on:** January 05, 2013, 16:09 »

Quote from: Equus on January 05, 2013, 15:16

That's the million dollar question. I tend to think it must be part of their transition plan. I just can't believe that they really are as stupid as they seem.

I just can't think of any other explanation. It was painfully obvious what was likely to happen, to a business built on 'crowd-sourcing', when said business began systematically shafting said crowd over several years. (That's over and above the fact that they were shafting us to the hilt from the start anyway).

The only surprise to me was how long it actually took for the crowd to react. I guess there is a significant amount of inertia (or lag) built into the system with credits being bought in advance and large accounts being more difficult to have authorised to move elsewhere.

Of course the IS bean-counters can, at least to some degree, predict what sales are likely to be over the next few months from the credit packages being bought today. I'll bet it doesn't look good.

It does seem strange though, when so many hugely significant contributors are reporting sales to have fallen 50% in a year, that TPTB appear to be sitting on their hands and taking little or no action to address the issues.

I guess the medicine that would be necessary to bring the customers back (i.e. slashing prices, reducing 'collections' and increasing royalties) is just too painful for them to swallow. Unfortunately, without the medicine, they're just going to get sicker.

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Author Topic: iStock's Alexa Rank continues to drop (Read 52079 times)

gostwyck

Poncke

gostwyck

ClaridgeJ

Poncke

BaldricksTrousers

luissantos84

ClaridgeJ

lisafx

aspp

ClaridgeJ

Poncke

gostwyck

ShadySue

luissantos84

leaf

Poncke

gostwyck

luissantos84

iStop

ClaridgeJ

Jo Ann Snover

StanRohrer

Equus

gostwyck

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