Search engine issues !

[meanderingemu]

2 hours ago, BidC said:

 

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

 

Plenty of issues brought up on the forum were not known from Alamy, and have resulted in improvements for all buyers and contributors.  You are relying on buyers to tell Alamy they can't find your image, i'd rather be proactive. 

[jgr]

Something very clearly happened around 7 weeks ago.  My views literally fell through the floor and of course so did my sales.  Worrying times. 

One lifelong photographer posted last week that he's given up on stock photography and got himself a job as a trainee bus driver instead 🙂

[jgr]

Just to illustrate how bad things have become, I used to get between one and two hundred views every day.  

 

In the last FOUR days combined, I've had just 15 views in total. 

 

Clearly the search algorithm changed seven weeks ago to favour some contributors, while others have been completely left behind.

 

I'll continue uploading for the time being in the hope that things turn around, but this can't go on forever.

[Harry Harrison]

Yes, the original post was about the difficulties of navigating the new search system for buyers (and contributors) but in terms of the reports of reductions in views then a possible change in the search algorithm does have to be brought into the question, unless the way those views are being reported has changed I suppose.

[Steve F]

58 minutes ago, jgr said:

In the last FOUR days combined, I've had just 15 views in total. 

 

There's no views on the weekend.

[BradleyPhoto]

On 20/11/2022 at 23:51, Ace said:

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 ?

 

 

I've had this issue persistently on Mac using safari and despite informing Alamy a long time ago it never seems to have been resolved. It isn't a problem involving filters needing resetting  etc there does appear to be an issue with the search engine. One only hopes that buyers aren't put off and persist in finding an alternative method of browsing Alamy images e.g. different browsers or machines.

[meanderingemu]

20 hours ago, BidC said:

 

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

 

You do realize the same comment applies to buyers, and that's what many of us having invested significant efforts in this platform are trying to prevent.  

Edited November 22, 2022 by Alamy
Edited by Alamy to remove inaccurate information

[jgr]

1 hour ago, Steve F said:

 

There's no views on the weekend.

No, but if a customer views something over the weekend, surely it's added to the stats the next time they are updated on Monday?

[Steve F]

3 minutes ago, jgr said:

No, but if a customer views something over the weekend, surely it's added to the stats the next time they are updated on Monday?

 

I assume most customers that are recorded by Alamy are large operations that don't tend to work on the weekends. But I could be wrong! 

 

[meanderingemu]

@Alamy wrote in another thread

Quote

Now, if we find (via data analysis) that the tab being named "Editorial" in it's current form is not working as we would like, we could and would change it after doing some A/B testing to find a suitable alternative.

 

 

so not sure saying Alamy has already indicated that they track buyer experience to make sure changes don't affect negatively in inaccurate information

Edited November 22, 2022 by meanderingemu

[wiskerke]

2 hours ago, jgr said:

No, but if a customer views something over the weekend, surely it's added to the stats the next time they are updated on Monday?

Of course it is.

It is a very easy test: you can look up your stats (views; zooms; sales even) per day, the day after or in case of a weekend, on Mondays in your Pseudonym Summary. Just set it to a single date.

Sales may pop up months later. And even views and zooms can be corrected some days later, so it's advisable to either check on a later date or to correct numbers a week or even some months later. My guess is that daily views are corrected because of clock/time differences across the globe. Zooms because not all zooms are counted, just those of known customers. And some visitors may have become known (probably meaning: paying) clients after the fact. I think Alamy once stated that sales could be recorded 3 months after a zoom, or that a zoom could be linked to a sale till 3 months after that zoom. However I have seen sales appear in my Pseudonym Summary 6 months after the initial sale date.

 

I used to keep a record of daily views from December 2015 till June 2020.  Mainly because I found it too tedious in 2020 I switched to weekly views. The other reason was that I finally understood how to make a graph out of it and it proved unreadable. But weekly views were fine. Here's my graph of weekly views.

So 1 - it's easy to record daily views including Saturdays and Sundays, but it's tedious.

2 - there are views over the weekend and they are recorded. Clients live in parts of the world where the Sunday is not a Sunday as we understand it. Their Sunday may be our Friday or Saturday. (Those may show up in your stats if you have subjects that are of interest to those parts.) And there are lots of places on the planet where the economy is a 24/7 affair. Especially in our sort of business.

3 - If you want to keep a record: normally you can go back the rolling year in your Pseudonym Summary.

 

wim

[Ace]

On 21/11/2022 at 08:54, Harry Harrison said:

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.

 

That was my point. It seems to be since the new side bars were introduced things have gone `Q` in every way. Just hoping the people searching are getting the results they need as quick as before the side bars. ...and no, I have not left any filters on. Was just hoping decent keywording was going to be enough to be found as it used to be. (um, since June this year) 

But heyho, good luck everyone ! 🙂 

Edited November 23, 2022 by Ace
poor grammar and spelling ;-)

[meanderingemu]

6 minutes ago, Ace said:

 

That was my point. It seems to be since the new side bars were introduced things have gone `Q` in every way. Just hoping the people searching are getting the results they need as quick as before the side bars. ...and no, I have not left any filters on. Was just hoping decent keywording was going to be enough to be found as it used to be. (um, since June this year) 

But heyho, good luck everyone ! 🙂 

 

 

as James said in another thread

 

" to be absolutely clear once again, the best approach for any contributor to Alamy is to submit their best work and keyword thoroughly and accurately - let us work on directing the customers (and the images) to the right place"

[Harry Harrison]

1 hour ago, Ace said:

Just hoping the people searching are getting the results they need as quick as before the side bars. ...and no, I have not left any filters on

Just trying to get at why your search didn't work so that it might possibly be explained to Alamy.  If there are no filters left on then I'm wondering what it is, could it be a problem with using Safari that others are reporting?

[Ace]

9 hours ago, Harry Harrison said:

Just trying to get at why your search didn't work so that it might possibly be explained to Alamy.  If there are no filters left on then I'm wondering what it is, could it be a problem with using Safari that others are reporting?

Hi Harry,  no idea tbh. But not using safari here. As said, just concerned that buyers are able to find what they search for. I am sure Alamy will monitor if figures have changed. 

[Michael Ventura]

I am not able to do any searches on Alamy with any device or search platform.  I hope buyers can!

[NYCat]

59 minutes ago, Michael Ventura said:

I am not able to do any searches on Alamy with any device or search platform.  I hope buyers can!

 

Check for filters. I had looked at Gen's leaf-cutter ants and then when I searched for African lions I was told there aren't any. That business with the filters is really annoying.

 

Paulette 

[Broad Norfolk]

1 hour ago, NYCat said:

 

Check for filters. I had looked at Gen's leaf-cutter ants and then when I searched for African lions I was told there aren't any. That business with the filters is really annoying.

 

Paulette 

 

With my apologies for a note of sarcasm with the huge decline in views, I sometimes feel that I, among others, are being 'filtered' out of the search engine!!

☹️

[Michael Ventura]

4 hours ago, NYCat said:

 

Check for filters. I had looked at Gen's leaf-cutter ants and then when I searched for African lions I was told there aren't any. That business with the filters is really annoying.

 

Paulette 

 

I was finally able to "clear all" filters (there were 8 that it said I had on) and was able to do a search, and then my very next search, 8 filters appeared again and I could not do another search.   I give up.  The "clear all" tab seems to have disappeared as well.    If buyers are having similar issues, they will elsewhere for sure. 

[Ace]

44 minutes ago, Michael Ventura said:

 

I was finally able to "clear all" filters (there were 8 that it said I had on) and was able to do a search, and then my very next search, 8 filters appeared again and I could not do another search.   I give up.  The "clear all" tab seems to have disappeared as well.    If buyers are having similar issues, they will elsewhere for sure. 

Let's hope they can work it out better than us then 😁

Edited November 26, 2022 by Ace
Misspelt