M.Chapman Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I'm puzzled. Why is the layout of the new Alamy home page almost identical to the Shutterstock home page? Were they designed by the same agency? And... I really don't understand Alamy categories. If I scroll down the home page and click on the "Architecture" category, I'm presented with what claims to be a "curated selection"...... of 2,247,869 images! This is almost the same as the number of images I get by simply searching on Alamy for "Architecture" with No People which yields 2,247,745 images. Where's the "curation"? The image order seems to be different, but there doesn't seem to be much "selection" going on. Believing I'm now inside a collection, if I type something new in the search box it simply reverts back to a search on all of Alamy, unless of course I leave architecture in the box too. Just like I'd have to do if you were searching normally. So what's the point of categories, or have I missed something? I did wonder if I should ensure I had "Architecture" or "Travel" etc. in my keywords, so my images would appear in these category collections, but there seems little point. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Morgan Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Alamy categories are simply images with that keyword applied to their images. So the category choices are not representative of what is actually there. As you point out, it just does a search for images with that keyword. I would like to see true categories put in place, but it doesn't seem to be coming any time soon. Jill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy deWitt Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 If you add "London" to the word architecture, the first image in the search results is one of "Naxos"!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickfly Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I'm puzzled. Why is the layout of the new Alamy home page almost identical to the Shutterstock home page? Were they designed by the same agency? There are lots of similar layouts on the web, it may just be an 'out of the box' website template. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I'm puzzled. Why is the layout of the new Alamy home page almost identical to the Shutterstock home page? Were they designed by the same agency? There are lots of similar layouts on the web, it may just be an 'out of the box' website template. Same as this forum template. Other similars around. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 I'm puzzled. Why is the layout of the new Alamy home page almost identical to the Shutterstock home page? Were they designed by the same agency? There are lots of similar layouts on the web, it may just be an 'out of the box' website template. Same as this forum template. Other similars around. Allan Mmm... not very good for brand identity... But I suppose uniformity is user friendly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYCat Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 The Wildlife category is definitely curated -- at least at the beginning. Compare the first page with the first page with Creative chosen in a regular search. The images are gorgeous but I think sometimes the reality of the animal is lost. Sort of like a skinny model with a beautiful smile compared to an actual woman. Not that models are not people, of course. Paulette Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 The Wildlife category is definitely curated -- at least at the beginning. Compare the first page with the first page with Creative chosen in a regular search. The images are gorgeous but I think sometimes the reality of the animal is lost. Sort of like a skinny model with a beautiful smile compared to an actual woman. Not that models are not people, of course. Paulette I agree they do look good, and the image order is different. It doesn't appear to be the images that Alamy has deemed "creative". Perhaps the "in category" image order is driven by the images that have sold the most, rather than by the contributors Alamy rank which is used normally? More Alamy magic behind the scenes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 I'm puzzled. Why is the layout of the new Alamy home page almost identical to the Shutterstock home page? Were they designed by the same agency? There are lots of similar layouts on the web, it may just be an 'out of the box' website template. Same as this forum template. Other similars around. Allan It's a clean template, but it is unfortunate that Alamy and SS now look so much alike. Something more distinctive might have been better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Quist Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 deleted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustydingo Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 If you add "London" to the word architecture, the first image in the search results is one of "Naxos"!! It does indeed , but only if you search for any occurence of the word London (including it appears, the photographer's name) plus any occurance of the word Architecture. If a searcher is looking for London architecture and is a bit more au fait with search engines, and therefore searches using quotation marks, "London architecture", he/she not only removes the Naxos image but also removes another 184,000 approx images from the result. Apropos of nothing in particular, something about this thread set me thinking about the accuracy of the "not digitally altered" statement . . . dd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie Edwards Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 My bugbear with this new page is the fact there is no Live News Feed now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathy deWitt Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 I agree, Julie. Leaves you floundering. I've set a bookmark for it, but why has this decision been made, dare I ask? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie Edwards Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Years ago I was a User Interface software specialist - now I know I select "live news" and click the magnifying glass I can browse the feed its fine... but the problem is this is a different behaviour to clicking "all images" then the blue button.. there is no consistency in the design - which is a big no-no... There is also the question of noun-verb, verb-noun behaviour... i.e. do i select an action then click to do it or does the click itself carry out the action.... In the case of the search functions .. entering a word then clicking makes sense, but i would suspect, all would this as I did that the drop down is a "modifier" to the action, i.e. "where to search"... my suggestion would be, as it can be an action in itself and no words are needed, selecting the "live news" in the drop down box would be the action itself, and the need to click the button be dropped... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiskerke Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Don't make me think. Rocket Surgery Made Easy. wim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brooks Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Similarity a good idea because a Shutterstock client, coming over to Alamy, may give up in frustration if they have to learn a new interface. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I do think that the Live News should have been more rather than less prominence. I was hoping Alamy would be really pushing these images but it seems they have been relegated instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Similarity a good idea because a Shutterstock client, coming over to Alamy, may give up in frustration if they have to learn a new interface. Or vice versa, which may not be such a good thing. Also, was the old Alamy interface really that difficult to learn? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ann Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Live News Feed is *Mostly Dead and buried (beneath layers of clicks) Being pragmatic, it's a useful clue to how important Alamy currently finds Live News feature. [ http://www.alamy.com/news/ Only way I could find Live News Feed was to click link under SELLING ON ALAMY category at bottom of Home Page, and then click 'Alamy news feed' link deep in text on that page.] *with thanks to "The Princess Bride" - Ann My bugbear with this new page is the fact there is no Live News Feed now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Live News Feed is Dead and Buried (beneath layers of clicks) Being pragmatic, it's quite a useful clue how unimportant Alamy currently finds Live News feature. [ http://www.alamy.com/news/ Only way I could find Live News Feed was to click link under SELLING ON ALAMY category at bottom of Home Page, and then click 'Alamy news feed' link deep in text on that page.] - Ann My bugbear with this new page is the fact there is no Live News Feed now... I don't know much about news photography, but I wonder if anyone outside of the UK ever makes "Live News" sales. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSnapper Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I was hoping Alamy would be really pushing these image they do, they do... but the live news page is not how they do it km Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I was hoping Alamy would be really pushing these image they do, they do... but the live news page is not how they do it km Outside the UK as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I was hoping Alamy would be really pushing these image they do, they do... but the live news page is not how they do it km I know most sales come from direct marketing to individual papers, but if Alamy want to project and improve their image as a serious supplier of news pictures, you'd think they would make more of it on their home page. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlbertSnapper Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 I was hoping Alamy would be really pushing these image they do, they do... but the live news page is not how they do it km Outside the UK as well? I don't know about outside the UK, but yes, they do 'push it', so to speak. Stand out images are forwarded to the relevant groups for publication. PW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie Edwards Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Ok.. The fact is live news images are distributed in a different way...(mostly via ftp to outlets in the uk) although some clients may browse them.. My reason is that I like to be sure my images are up, that the captions are ok etc etc... I also like to see what else is going on and what other images have been submitted from events I cover or indeed decided against covering... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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