it is not about microstock.
it is about distribution on the internet.
Things are changing from monopole media streams, such as one way communication (TV) to peer to peer streams, and that is actually a good thing.

Soon every peer on the net will be providing content for another peer for him to enjoy.

That of course will be the end of many of the controlled media.

So the state, interest groups or spin doctors will have a hard time intrepretating the truth for everybody.

That is good.

And if 28 photograpers are laid off it the process its no big deal, they can blog instead, and if their blog is interesting enough, they can also earn money from it.

In 1989 the soviet union began to collapse, and I bet a lot of "state photographers" lost their jobs.

This is just the next step. Same process. Liberation of information.
And it is appropriate. We have been fed false information long enough.

Let me tell you a story. Ill make it as short as I can and hopefully not loose importat details.

I was in my mid twenties, and I had just saved up enough money so I could buy a used rifle, so I could shoot roe deer.
While I was sitting there cleaning the new thing, my 60 + neighbour entered the house:
"I had such one", he said.

It was a rebuilt German Mauser so I wondered a bit, where he had had such one.
"What, where, when?" I asked".
Silence.

Then at the age of 60 or 70 he decided to tell, for the first time:
" I was in the waffen SS at the eastern front, so I know such a Mauser better than you ever will".
I was chocked!
My nice neighbour had been in the Waffen SS!

"But, but, what about the autrocities?" I asked. "Did you take part?"

"It was not like that, the victor writes the history, we did not do all that, we were just soldiers, and that was bad enough".

To this day, I dont know what to make out of his statement. He was a nice and kind person.
However I am glad that I heard his point of view. I still have the mauser.

Yes, and of course "Everything on the Internet is true" And you think you have been fed false information before. The Internet is a vast wasteland of spam and personal interest. SEO means, getting attention by any means, nothing about quality of content. The Internet has become a marketplace for hucksters and frauds.

(unless you really do have a mysterious, previously unknown relative living in Nigeria?) (unless you won the Irish Sweepstakes without buying a ticket?) (unless Apple or Bill Gates really are giving away something valuable for sending this email to ten friends) (Unless you need a better life with drugs, like hormones, or fake prescription medications from unknown labs) (unless you can grow body parts to amaze and impress the opposite sex.) (Unless you want to lose body fat without dieting or exercise) (unless you need to open this zipped file to receive a package which was undeliverable by someone) (Unless your computer is infected and you need to run this software immediately to fix it) [hint, that installs the virus] (Or maybe your account is about to be closed, unless you come to this site and enter your password and personal information, to verify the security block. Which ps steals all your data!)

You are missing something important. Accountability and traceability of facts. On the Internet we can learn how aliens visit us. Why I've seen the photos, it must be real? How the trips to the Moon were faked. Why even the Second World War, 6 million innocent people were not slaughtered in camps. The Internet says so, it must be true.

Liberation of lies. Anyone can become a self proclaimed authority on any subject. And sadly people who will believe those lies. And that's what you are cheering about?

Hey I have one more. Sell those old photos sitting on your hard drive make money. Have a pocket camera? People will buy your snapshots. Have friends with images, get them to join and you get paid for every time they sell something, referral links can make you money. Build a collection and get paid for years and years. (except someone left out, changing the rules, millions of competing images, lower commissions, dropping referral bonuses, and reviews that would reject Ansel Adams for "Low Commercial Value" because there are too many landscape and scenery shots.  )

Of course I'm part of that party, so I can't complain too loudly. I'm still selling on Micro and happy about it.

it is not about microstock.
it is about distribution on the internet.
Things are changing from monopole media streams, such as one way communication (TV) to peer to peer streams, and that is actually a good thing.

Soon every peer on the net will be providing content for another peer for him to enjoy.

That of course will be the end of many of the controlled media.

So the state, interest groups or spin doctors will have a hard time intrepretating the truth for everybody.

That is good.

And if 28 photograpers are laid off it the process its no big deal, they can blog instead, and if their blog is interesting enough, they can also earn money from it.

In 1989 the soviet union began to collapse, and I bet a lot of "state photographers" lost their jobs.

This is just the next step. Same process. Liberation of information.
And it is appropriate. We have been fed false information long enough.

as for SEO there's an interesting discussion about "the state of SEO in 2013" :

http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4583408.htm



in short, google made sure it's becoming next to impossible to rank nowadays and there's constant fluctuation even for previously established authority sites.

this has certaily had a huge effect also on newspapers who planned to just "move to digital" and survive with subscriptions or advertising profiting from user-generated content, users spamming links on social networks, etc.

that's not working anymore it seems.

There's a better discussion going on here:  http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-photography-discussion/28-photographers-fired-replaced-by-iphones!/  Same story, slightly different spin.