So far not so good for me either.  Not 0 sales, but about 50% down from the past week or two (which already wasn't good). 

Maybe they increased the exclusive bias a bit more, to throw a bone to exclusives with flaming files?  It would be a sensible thing to do to appease their top sellers...

Not a "top seller" but only a large ported "mid class" exclusive here.  I can tell you that sales today not only are not appeasing they are quite depressing.

Same here, fewer sales than before. best match is not the problem, advertising and marketing is.

Low sales here but the best match is still broken.  For my hometown where I have a high % of the images, 28 out of the first 30 are non-relevant, 0 DL, Getty images.  Mostly shots of inside doctors offices or at the beach (I don't live near the ocean).

Haven't they told us several times that the best match we see is not the best match that their customers see?

Yes, they used to tell us that. Interesting they haven't mentioned it, not even a peep, in the latest round of excitement.

Yup, 1 M today.

As in "One million"? 

*SCNR*

Quote from: stockmarketer on December 11, 2012, 14:43

Whatever they did, it's made a big positive difference for me.  Looks like I'll make about 3x what I made yesterday on IS, and it will be my best day in weeks, maybe months.

I'm glad it is working for you.  At least there are some who are doing okay ATM.  Kind of like winning the lottery.  And that's really the problem.  The default search order of a major internet business shouldn't be a lottery.  But I guess we all know that already.  Sigh.

I'm guessing I'm doing well after the change because I haven't been uploading regularly in years, which probably has been punishing me the way search has been these last few months.  But I have a bunch of flamed images that have probably been elevated today with the search change, so perhaps people who have a lot of flames but haven't uploaded at IS in a long time may see positive results like I have?

This best match change is probably going on for some time before its done. I searched an area where myself and Lisa were totally dominant and before we use to have at least 3 pics a piece on page one. Now they are pushed way back and in favour of many pics which are not only irrelevant but also badly keyworded and ONLY because they are shot by exclusives, I mean it dont even show what I searched for.
As I undestood the important thing here was to sort of "save" the company, etc. quality and commercial value should get prefferance, etc?  but no. As far as I can see, they are still pushing lots of inferior, irrelevant material way up only because the file carries a crown. Bad call from somebody who wants to sort out a company.

Having said this the best match change might still be under way.

This best match change is probably going on for some time before its done. I searched an area where myself and Lisa were totally dominant and before we use to have at least 3 pics a piece on page one. Now they are pushed way back and in favour of many pics which are not only irrelevant but also badly keyworded and ONLY because they are shot by exclusives, I mean it dont even show what I searched for.
As I undestood the important thing here was to sort of "save" the company, etc. quality and commercial value should get prefferance, etc?  but no. As far as I can see, they are still pushing lots of inferior, irrelevant material way up only because the file carries a crown. Bad call from somebody who wants to sort out a company.

Having said this the best match change might still be under way.

This crown took a hit from the best match tweak today.  Several of my files sank several pages in the search order and not a single sale since the 'fix'. 

Quote from: mlwinphoto on December 11, 2012, 20:12

Quote from: ClaridgeJ on December 11, 2012, 17:39

This best match change is probably going on for some time before its done. I searched an area where myself and Lisa were totally dominant and before we use to have at least 3 pics a piece on page one. Now they are pushed way back and in favour of many pics which are not only irrelevant but also badly keyworded and ONLY because they are shot by exclusives, I mean it dont even show what I searched for.
As I undestood the important thing here was to sort of "save" the company, etc. quality and commercial value should get prefferance, etc?  but no. As far as I can see, they are still pushing lots of inferior, irrelevant material way up only because the file carries a crown. Bad call from somebody who wants to sort out a company.

Having said this the best match change might still be under way.

This crown took a hit from the best match tweak today.  Several of my files sank several pages in the search order and not a single sale since the 'fix'.

Other than the Agency junk that's clogging up some searches, I think a number of groups took a hit. I have a grand total of 7 sales, all small or XS which is just a ridiculous Tuesday. Sorry you got wiped out temporarily. Once you've experienced these cliff diving episodes, you "get" why people get worked up about playing games with best match order...

The searches still don't look right, although you can see some minor changes from yesterday (I don't monitor them regularly but had been looking at the examples in the best match thread in the last few days).

Well, SIGH!  I guess its all so screwed up that its become impossible to even find an algorithm never mind restoring it to normal. Did I make a misstake?  didnt RR say something about welcoming independants back, etc? funny way to go about it.

All this about their "own" engineers, etc. Whats that supposed to mean, all they have are employees. Why dont they just pay for a team of experts and get it sorted out?
Here in Stockholm, a small insignificant picture agency just paid 25K for a search sort out. I suppose they cant afford it.

This is silly, the fix is meant to be about getting the right files in front of buyers.

There is no way they can ensure that every one of their exclusives have their files all moving up the search. The idea that a better search means any particular person's files will be higher up is a complete logical disconnect.

The "right files" will be different for everybody.

No matter how many times they tweak it some people will be happier and some will think it still has too much of this and not enough of that.

Is this about the right files for buyers or right files to increase sales?

Please tell me stats aren't reporting yesterday and today, otherwise I've just had my first zero download day in many years 
I hope this isn't what the best match "fix" has done

ETA okay, just had the sales show up after I posted, very good day actually 

The whole best match debacle is a red herring.

I've been saying this for ages, but it's a simple thing for people to understand and the company can make changes without actually having to pony up any cash so it's very attractive for both sides to focus on it.

More buyers and better royalties are what's needed more than anything else. If artists lobbied harder for those things we might be able to make this business sustainable.

The only way contributors are going to see their incomes increase again is if iStock's site traffic goes back up. So you have an oversupplied archive and an under supplied buyer pool.

That means iStock really has to roll up their sleeves, get out there, and push the market by investing in marketing and advertising.

But if they aren't even willing to reach into their fat pockets to hire the right developers to expeditiously fix site problems, then they are never going to spend money on marketing and brand development.

The only brand of value to the owners in terms of promoting at this point is Getty and so iStock is being marginalized.

Best match tweaks are just smoke and mirror fixes to make it look as they are being proactive to the contributors. You can even bring back the contributor acclaimed BM2 and still little will change. No increased traffic, no increased downloads.

Youre right actually!  this best match tweak is just a playact. Makes it look as if they are doing something.

Thanks. Now my maths isn't so good cause I nevva finish skool so just bear wiff me ok?

But I can tell you one thing. Double the volume of pictures, times half the site traffic as before gives you 25% of the total downloads from a year ago equals a bunch of upset contributors shouting for answers. So whatever admins are left running the little store in Calgary they are trying like mad to window dress as best they can before all the contributors realize the best match isn't going to save them, they hand in their crowns, and then there is no longer a little shop for them to go to work in anymore.