Search engine issues !

[Ace]

If I was a potential purchaser for Alamy the search engine would do my head in !

 

If I wanted to search a subject. I would put in one or two main Keywords.

When I do this currently I get a choice of just 32 photographs out of over 300 million photos !

 

Why oh why would I want to `phaff about` filling about 3-10 different boxes to find my potential photo ?

 

 

[Broad Norfolk]

Good comment. On the contributor side this search situation with extremely low views currently points to the very low probability of my images (and others) ever being found in a search. I do feel my years of very carefull keywording and tagging are appearing to be a complete waste of my efforts. Daily views of 350 or so earlier this year are now about 60!! ☹️

[Harry Harrison]

9 hours ago, Ace said:

If I wanted to search a subject. I would put in one or two main Keywords.

When I do this currently I get a choice of just 32 photographs out of over 300 million photos !

 

Why oh why would I want to `phaff about` filling about 3-10 different boxes to find my potential photo

That is in theory how the search still works, the problem since the introduction of the new sidebar filters and the new 'Creative' collections on June 23rd has been that there are more things to go wrong which is surely going to confound and possibly deter potential buyers. I don't know what's happened with the search that you describe but presumably there have been filters inadvertently left in place, or perhaps you found that you were searching in only one part of the library, just in Ultimate perhaps?  You certainly don't have to fill in any boxes, I'm not sure what you're referring to there.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Harry Harrison

[Steve F]

I just put in "tube train" as a search and got 47,800 results. What are you looking up??

[BidC]

Clearing the cache was suggested to me by Alamy, and that worked ...

[Harry Harrison]

2 hours ago, Broad Norfolk said:

I do feel my years of very carefull keywording and tagging are appearing to be a complete waste of my efforts.

I certainly respect your frustration but I wonder if it's possible to work out why our images aren't being found, if only to feed this back to Alamy for comment at least? We're told that most people still search in All images, and indeed it's recommended that we do also, and so this search, and the results it brings up, shouldn't have changed since the June makeover. What might be going wrong I wonder?

[meanderingemu]

4 hours ago, Steve F said:

I just put in "tube train" as a search and got 47,800 results. What are you looking up??

 

probably has hidden filters from prior search remaining.  but this would be same for any regular client so still an issue

[meanderingemu]

3 hours ago, BidC said:

Clearing the cache was suggested to me by Alamy, and that worked ...

 

but client won't go to alamy to be told to clear cache, they will go elsewhere. Same as the one who literally used to terms Alamy and don't know they are supposed to ignore them and go to "All" 

[BidC]

16 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

 

but client won't go to alamy to be told to clear cache, they will go elsewhere. Same as the one who literally used to terms Alamy and don't know they are supposed to ignore them and go to "All" 

 

True ... but the search starts at 'all' and the other categories are curated, hence those clients may ask Alamy for the specifics on what they are looking for. I always clear the cache with anything if there is an issue, and I imagine most seasoned image searchers would know that also, or contact Alamy themselves.

Edited November 21, 2022 by BidC

[Harry Harrison]

Using 'tube train' as an example and searching in 'All images' (i.e. not 'photographs)

 

All images - 47,800

All Creative - 31,041

 

of which...

 

Ultimate - 19

Vital - 198

Uncut - 28,646

Foundation - 2178

 

Sum of Creative + Editorial = 46,812

 

So this leaves 988 that appear in All Images but nowhere else, my guess that these might be Archival, but I don't know.

[Steve F]

18 minutes ago, BidC said:

I imagine most seasoned image searchers would know that

 

Would also assume most regular clients would know to change the search criteria (hidden filters) when they can see the search is returning few results.

[Harry Harrison]

2 minutes ago, Steve F said:

most regular clients would know to change the search criteria

New clients?

[Steve F]

1 minute ago, Harry Harrison said:

New clients?

 

Yeah. Well they wouldn't have previous filters applied, the first time round. After that.....

 

I guess Alamy is going for a clean interface (apart from the annoying video stuff), with search options hidden behind (same as Google, so it can't be terrible!)

I've no idea what it's like to search on the competition's sites.

[BidC]

10 minutes ago, Steve F said:

 

Would also assume most regular clients would know to change the search criteria (hidden filters) when they can see the search is returning few results.

 

It would probably be better to say that somewhere - caught me out first time (though I'm not a 'seasoned searcher'  )

[Harry Harrison]

7 minutes ago, Steve F said:

I guess Alamy is going for a clean interface

I think the problem is that these filters aren't cleared when you start a new search on the Home page, and similarly you are returned to whichever part of the search results you were in before (as in Vital, Ultimate, Editorial etc.). I can only speak of my experience on my browser though, might be different on others.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Harry Harrison

[Harry Harrison]

6 minutes ago, Steve F said:

I've no idea what it's like to search on the competition's sites.

I imagine that we're not allowed to talk about that anyway.

[meanderingemu]

1 hour ago, BidC said:

 

True ... but the search starts at 'all' and the other categories are curated, hence those clients may ask Alamy for the specifics on what they are looking for. I always clear the cache with anything if there is an issue, and I imagine most seasoned image searchers would know that also, or contact Alamy themselves.

I guess I'm not a seasoned buyer,  when a seller makes it hard for me to find what i need,  i just look elsewhere. 

[BidC]

25 minutes ago, meanderingemu said:

I guess I'm not a seasoned buyer,  when a seller makes it hard for me to find what i need,  i just look elsewhere. 

 

Then sell elsewhere - there's nothing to stop anyone doing that if you are unhappy. 

[spacecadet]

5 minutes ago, BidC said:

 

Then sell elsewhere - there's nothing to stop anyone doing that if you are unhappy. 

"My way or the highway" then.

I and many others have invested a great deal of time and effort in their ports and want their agent to do the same. And you say that they should simply walk away from all that work. Well forgive me if I don't take that advice.

[Harry Harrison]

8 minutes ago, BidC said:

Then sell elsewhere - there's nothing to stop anyone doing that if you are unhappy. 

 

To be fair this thread was started by someone, and then backed up by another, who felt that the search engine was responsible for their loss of sales. It seems reasonable to discuss why that might be, whether it is perceived or imaginary. 

[BidC]

4 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

 

To be fair this thread was started by someone, and then backed up by another, who felt that the search engine was responsible for their loss of sales. It seems reasonable to discuss why that might be, whether it is perceived or imaginary. 

 

 I agree. However, it seems that most of these threads seem to end up in loud and unhappy complaints - and yet still people continue to submit images. 

[BidC]

8 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

"My way or the highway" then.

I and many others have invested a great deal of time and effort in their ports and want their agent to do the same. And you say that they should simply walk away from all that work. Well forgive me if I don't take that advice.

 

That's completely your decision. But to complain continually, and appear very unhappy (yet stay) doesn't make sense (to me). Thats all I'm saying.

[Harry Harrison]

1 minute ago, BidC said:

I agree.

To me it is more that contributors who have made considerably more investment here than I have perceive, correctly or incorrectly, that their efforts have been devalued by design changes to the website, and to its functionality. I actually think that minor changes could improve this situation for both contributors and buyers.

[Harry Harrison]

10 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

I actually think that minor changes could improve this situation for both contributors and buyers.

For example, and I don't claim this as my idea, just something I might have seen somewhere else. Suppose when filters are applied the background of the 'Filters' sidebar heading changes to a different colour and the heading changes to 'Filters applied' and that when starting a new search all filters are cleared. 

Edited November 21, 2022 by Harry Harrison

[DJ Myford]

I have to say, this seems very much like the "More" button fiasco. Forum members complained, but Alamy insisted that hiding many of our images so that potential buyers couldn't see them was a wonderful thing. Only when buyers complained - presumably that images they were interested in had vanished and couldn't be found - did Alamy admit that it was a terrible idea and went back to showing all search results. The new arrangement seems to be more sophisticated, but possibly equally flawed.