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Alamy announces new search features |
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Written by Alamy Images
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Wednesday, 20 June 2007 |
Oxfordshire, UK, 20 June 2007--Alamy, the largest stock
photography collection on the web, is launching a new generation of
products and tools to improve the search experience for customers.
A new search engine and a new keywording structure are among the
initiatives planned by the company which is set to reach 10 million
images by the end of the year.
The aim is to improve the speed and quality of the search experience
for customers and to help contributors compete by giving them a better
way of keywording their images.
Alamy CEO James West said: “The number of images available online is
increasing dramatically. As a consequence of this, picture buyers will
spend longer looking for the images they need and image producers will
spend more time describing their pictures in order to stand out from
the crowd. Alamy is leading this trend.”
The changes follow the introduction last year of AlamyRank, a system
based on customer activity that brings the best and most appropriately
keyworded images to the top of the search.
The new search engine, due to be released in Quarter 3 2007, has been
built to be compatible with the new developments which also include
future versions of AlamyRank, customer search activity reporting tools,
greater speed and stronger relevancy.
New keywording will start later this year. Images already in the system
are unaffected, meaning that contributors will not be forced to
re-keyword existing collections. But they can choose to do so to reap
the benefits of the new approach.
The new structure allows contributors to be comprehensive in their
keywording without penalising their AlamyRank. This works like a
pyramid, with the importance of the various keyword fields diminishing
as the fields increase in size.
Another new tool is AlamyMeasures which will allow contributors to see
how often their images have been viewed and clicked by customers and
how they are performing against the rest of the collection.
“These projects mark the start of an exciting time for our company,”
said West. “Giving finer control to our contributors over how their
images are seen by the search engine will, in time, improve the quality
and accuracy of the customer experience.
“Of equal importance to looking forward however, is not leaving those
who already have images on Alamy behind. The changes you will see over
the coming months are designed to open up new opportunities for all our
contributors, new and existing, as our business develops.”
More details are on: www.alamy.com/Blog/contributor/archive/2007/06/19/1702.aspx.
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