Author Topic: categories change in shutterstock site (Read 3336 times)

timbert · « **on:** April 30, 2019, 08:40 »

Hello everyone
I recently noticed that the categories on the shutterstock site have changed, and that the order of the images in each category has changed as well ( popularity)
Also in each category there are images that are not related to it, for example in the abstract category there are pictures that belong to other categories such as objects, nature and so on. looks like a bug.
The change happened a few days ago during last week, and affects my sales.
I did not see that there are discussions on the subject, nor did in the forum of the shutterstock site.
Have you encountered a drop in sales because of the issue?
Many thanks

dpimborough · « **Reply #1 on:** April 30, 2019, 16:22 »

To be honest I think Shutterstock need the equivalent of Gordon Ramsay to sort them out

As to the categories which ones have been added or taken away?

The categories are set by contributors and judging by the poor quality of keywording its no surprize that categories assigned by contributors are a mess

timbert · « **Reply #2 on:** May 01, 2019, 01:36 »

the categories itself wasn't changed not added or taken away , but they re shuffled the images popularity order

when you look at most relevant, images that were in the first pages have now changed and not appear anymore

whats disturbing is that i see that images which were assigned for specific categories, for example abstract category can now be viewed in

vintage category for example, seems like a mix up made by shutterstock

medveh · « **Reply #3 on:** May 01, 2019, 15:51 »

Actually what happened is that they are hiding the actual category views and are showing the search results of the keyword that the categories are named after. The first page of the category is an exception from this, I don't know how is that 1 page generated, but from the 2nd page on, for the popular view of any category, the 'See more...' button at the end of the first page of any category (popular view) is redirecting you to the 2nd page of the search results of the keyword that the categories are named after. I don't know how to describe it any better, hope it's not too complicated, but if you look at the links changing in the address bar it is pretty obvious.

timbert · « **Reply #4 on:** May 02, 2019, 03:12 »

This is true
In addition, it looks like an algorithm is doing the assignment to categories, it is done according to keyword or keyword in the title

I saw an example of a photo taken of a fruit, The photographer assigned it to the category FOOD AND DRINK, and because the title of the picture had VINTAGE keyword in it, the image can be viewed in the category VINTAGE and not in the FOOD AND DRINK category.
That's really weird. I have not encountered anything like this before in shutterstock and it messed all images in categories

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #5 on:** May 02, 2019, 08:21 »

Quote from: timbert on May 02, 2019, 03:12

This is true
In addition, it looks like an algorithm is doing the assignment to categories, it is done according to keyword or keyword in the title

I saw an example of a photo taken of a fruit, The photographer assigned it to the category FOOD AND DRINK, and because the title of the picture had VINTAGE keyword in it, the image can be viewed in the category VINTAGE and not in the FOOD AND DRINK category.
That's really weird. I have not encountered anything like this before in shutterstock and it messed all images in categories

Brilliant how this AI is working for us, (not really) nothing unusual. SNAFU

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Author Topic: categories change in shutterstock site (Read 3336 times)

timbert

dpimborough

timbert

medveh

timbert

Uncle Pete

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