It's a frustration with me too.  I click on the keyword to expand it like say "tree" and after wading through a loooong list of different tree sub-species I find that my tree in question isn't even in the list.  I just use deepmeta and by-pass such craziness.

email [email protected] to suggest new keywords

email [email protected] to suggest new keywords

I used that a lot in vain. Last time I checked, "real" wasn't yet Brazilian currency.

What they really need is, obviously, a way for us to suggest new keywords when we submit images.  Why would they not want that?  Wouldn't we just be giving them exactly what they need?

iStock now supports 12 search languages, so any keyword added needs to be translated properly and put into the right context for each language. It's not just an easy addition. The good news is that about 2 billion people around the world can search in their native language.

sjlocke, averil, thanks, that answers a couple of my questions.


What they really need is, obviously, a way for us to suggest new keywords when we submit images.  Why would they not want that?  Wouldn't we just be giving them exactly what they need?

It's not the same as a keyword suggestion feature exactly, but if you feel like taking a few minutes to make a post in the keyword forum, the moderator and IS admins do make changes - and suggest terms to you if something's already in the CV and you haven't found it. It's also a place to Scout keyword removals that you feel are in error.

Things don't always happen instantly, but you do have a way to get interactions with the folks to handle the CV updates. There are also helpful contributors who will suggest keywords you might have overlooked.

You can use keywords that aren't in the CV - they will be used for the image and work in searches, but not translated into other languages

Wow is that true on IS? If so I didn't realize it.  I thought they'd just reject the image for bad keywords.

email [email protected] to suggest new keywords

Absolutely, but you can also make suggestions on the keywords forum. Sometimes that can throw up alternative suggestions you hadn't thought of, other times Ducksandwich or Emyerson will throw in some official words. That can sometimes get a change implemented more quickly, if it's thought to be an important change.
The most serious problem is if a word already exists, but you want a different meaning, like you want to add your photos of Spingleplonk, Arkansas, but there is already a CV entry for Spingleplonk, Essex. Then there's not a lot you can do other than holler.
IME some changes get made overnight, some take over two years.

I was under the impression we could only use keywords from the CV.  Why else would it be called the "Controlled" vocabulary?   I had some images rejected for keywording, which reinforced my impression that IS was very restrictive on keywords.  I actually had no idea we could just use non-CV keywords.

Quote from: MichaelJay on January 14, 2010, 07:13

Quote from: madelaide on January 14, 2010, 04:29

I used that a lot in vain. Last time I checked, "real" wasn't yet Brazilian currency.

Actually it is - admittedly only, if you search in Brazilian Portuguese, "real" will translate to "Moeda Brasileira" which is "Brazilian Currency".

Most people searching for "real" in English will probably NOT mean the Brazilian currency - and they can still search for "Brazilian Currency" or "Brazilian money", not a far fetch. So I assume, for most of the real-life cases, it works this way.

Michael,

I haven't uploaded for over an year, and when I do is in English.  I have just edited one of my images to check, and they still only have two other meanings.  They have "yen", "peso" and "schekel" in the English vocabulary, and in other sites people buy a lot of my "real" images (in IS too).  In DT I saw many times "real" as the term of search.

Quote from: Gannet77 on January 14, 2010, 05:28

You can use keywords that aren't in the CV - they will be used for the image and work in searches, but not translated into other languages, and if they're phrases they would have to be placed in quotes for the search to work

I don't think this is correct, as this is the message I get if I don't check any of the meanings for "real" (the underline is mine):

"You should provide at least one appropriate search term for each of the tags related to this image before completing the disambiguation process. A term is one of the possible meanings provided in the right hand column for each of the tags you've added. Only check those possible terms which are relevant to this particular image. A search term is needed in order to make your file searchable. Do you want to continue without choosing terms?"

That's the problem I outlined above.
Because there is/are already meanings for the word 'real' you can't currently use it to mean the Brazilian currency. Same with Pula or Sucre. However, for instance, the currency of Ethiopia is 'birr'. Birr isn't in the CV, but someone has 'added it for their own use' (and if you were the first you could use it). Since 'birr' is the name, in that case it wouldn't even matter that it couldn't be translated, as presumably anyone wanting an image of a birr would type in 'birr'. However, if it's a keyword phrase you can still add it 'for your own use' (you get a message asking you if you want to do that), but then the searcher would somehow need to know that they have to put the search term in quotations while searching. Not obvious or intuitive, but then if they want to qualify a phrase search, they also have to put it in quotations even if it's in the CV. E.g. "Railway track" winter, or "Railway track" Canada etc.
Actually I like the CV, even though blips like this are very annoying: it took well over two years to get my home county, Ayrshire, to be added, as previously my only option was 'Ayrshire cattle".
Remember the Keywording forum: very helpful people hang out there 

Unfortunately, almost every time I upload images I found 1-2 words that I can't use because IS vocabulary gives me totally useless suggestions.
I think that English vocabulary (and vocabulary of any other language) is way to complex to be correctly expressed this way.

Unfortunately, almost every time I upload images I found 1-2 words that I can't use because IS vocabulary gives me totally useless suggestions.
I think that English vocabulary (and vocabulary of any other language) is way to complex to be correctly expressed this way.

I have to agree.  I just uploaded some images today and couldn't quite get the right meanings for some of the words.

BTW, Ivan, I love your new avatar picture!  Adorable little model you have there

Thanks Lisa That's my son

Adorable boy!