Keyword spamming

[Bill Brooks]

Just did a search for Mallard duck female uk, and three of the images on the first page are of a Canada goose. Wonderful.

 

 

I just did the same search. “Mallard duck female uk”. The Alamy search was better and more accurate than most major stock websites. The misidentification rate was 5 out of 240 images, about 2%. The few errors are largely irrelevant, as long as the client finds an image that meets their needs.

 

I was particularly impressed with the selection presented. I liked the high technical quality and beauty of the images. There was a good selection of action, identification, generic location, advertising, room for type, close up, head shots, beauty shots, family shots, chicks, male with female, and other subject treatment. An image for every different use. You could do a small book on “Mallard duck female uk” just from the first 2 pages, and not bore the reader with similar images.

 

I do not understand the complaining. The client would consider the search within parameters. The offending photographer’s images will eventually fall to the bottom of the search order, and that helps photographers who keyword correctly.

 

Here are my figures, do the search yourself.

 

Search was: Mallard duck female uk, relevant, 120 per page

 

Page 1: there were 4 misidentified birds out of 120, the first showing up at position # 34. There were also an additional 2 images where the correctly identified bird was so insignificant as to be irrelevant.

 

Page 2: there was 1 misidentified bird image, and 2 insignificant bird images.

[DJ Myford]

I used to work in Quality Control, and if we got something wrong a corner of England could have become a glowing crater. It tends to make you slightly picky about things. I know it’s not like three of the paracetamol in a bottle of 100 actually being cyanide, but it still makes me want to reach for a “Do Not Use” tag.

[wiskerke]

 

 

 

You land 28 days in the sin bin for a few pixels hardly showing CA and THAT kind of keywording passes with flying colours  Came across this image while looking for wolf den nest    

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

Talking of CA's, have you seen today's front page image? Not the first time the first image customers see is covered in CA's (green fringing covered the keyboard). Hardly a good advert for the quality of Alamy's content.

 

Off topic, I know, but I had to mention in somewhere! 

 

Geoff.

 

 

Glitch aesthetic to prove you're a real person using a phone in stead of a phony photographer using a so-called real camera.

Great pseudo: Guerilla.

 

wim

 

 

Not too sure if that's a dig or an agreement.

 

Geoff.

 

 

A moment of pure self-reflection.

It's that time of the year.

 

wim

[KevinS]

 

Just did a search for Mallard duck female uk, and three of the images on the first page are of a Canada goose. Wonderful.

 

 

I just did the same search. “Mallard duck female uk”. The Alamy search was better and more accurate than most major stock websites. The misidentification rate was 5 out of 240 images, about 2%. The few errors are largely irrelevant, as long as the client finds an image that meets their needs.

 

I was particularly impressed with the selection presented. I liked the high technical quality and beauty of the images. There was a good selection of action, identification, generic location, advertising, room for type, close up, head shots, beauty shots, family shots, chicks, male with female, and other subject treatment. An image for every different use. You could do a small book on “Mallard duck female uk” just from the first 2 pages, and not bore the reader with similar images.

 

I do not understand the complaining. The client would consider the search within parameters. The offending photographer’s images will eventually fall to the bottom of the search order, and that helps photographers who keyword correctly.

 

Here are my figures, do the search yourself.

 

Search was: Mallard duck female uk, relevant, 120 per page

 

Page 1: there were 4 misidentified birds out of 120, the first showing up at position # 34. There were also an additional 2 images where the correctly identified bird was so insignificant as to be irrelevant.

 

Page 2: there was 1 misidentified bird image, and 2 insignificant bird images.

 

Exactly!

[Jonny Nicholson]

As I've mentioned before, in other forum posts, I try to keep things relevant. However, I mostly contribute to the live news feed, so I consider myself to be recording archiving stories, as well as photos (ok, not the whole story and by the time the photograph is in the archive, its just the image).
 
Think about, for example, Theresa May. You can legitimately use the following to tag your images...
Essential: Theresa May, Theresa May MP, Prime Minister
Main: Politics, Politician, Government, Institution, MP, Member of Parliament
Comprehensive: Party Politics, Conservative Party, Conservative and Unionist Party, Tory Party, Conservative, Conservative and Unionist Tory, Office of Prime Minister, UK Prime Minister, Prime Minister of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Gulf Cooperation Council Summit, Gulf Cooperation Council Summit 2016

 

I don't really bother with the location, unless its specific place like 'Downing Street'. The location will not only be obvious from the city/country location field, but the caption too: 'Rt. Hon. Theresa May MP, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Leader of the Conservative Party and Member of Parliament for Maidenhead, speaks at the Gulf Cooperation Council Summit on Wednesday Dec. 7th, 2016, Manama, Bahrain. <Secondary information about the summit if you feel like it/have space>.
 
However, most editorial clients are either going to look for 'Theresa May' to attract attention, use as a visual aide or to break the text up. A politics textbook might show a picture of a 'Prime Minister' or 'Prime Minister of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland' (in this example, but its just as applicable to other countries and/or roles) with the caption of 'Theresa May, Prime Minister of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 2016-Present/[year when she steps down]'. I get that you can tag in 'Former Home Secretary', but the time to tag her with 'Home Secretary' was when she was Home Secretary and I don't really going over the past and saying 'former this, former that' - think of things in the present.
 

If its an official visit during a disaster/disaster recovery, you can add the disaster as a tag too since its an ever-changing/on-going story too (retrospective editorial articles/pieces might look for 'David Cameron' AND 'Storm Desmond' AND 'Official Visit' AND 'Victims' because the piece is about 'UK politics has changed since Storm Desmond' with the caption reading:

'The UK's first PM, former Prime Minister, David Cameron, speaking to the victims of Storm Desmond. The storm caused such a backlash of public opinion against an unelected elite running government that HRH Queen Elizabeth II introduced the Office of Prime Minister to make Government electorally accountable and responsive'.

 

Its a bit of a silly example, granted, but its just a figurative example of how your photo of the UK's PM might be used.

 

Tomorrow I'll be using...

Essential: Preston Combined Court

Main: Society, Law, Law and Order, Court, Combined Court

The Preston Combined Court stands on Friday, Dec. 9th, 2016 in Preston, United Kingdom. Tina Rothery, who has been convicted for trespassing on Cuadrilla owned land, is appearing at Preston Combined Court to refuse payment of the fine which is the sentence for the conviction.

 

Essential: Frack Free Lancashire, Tina Rothery

Main: Society, Law, Law and Order, Court, Preston Combined Court, Economics, Economy, Industry, Business, Cuadrilla, Environment, Energy, Fossil Fuel, Oil and Gas, Gas, Hydraulic Fracturing, Fracking

Tina Rothery, a member of the Frack Free Lancashire campaign, arrives at Preston Crown Court on Friday, Dec. 9th, 2016 in Preston, United Kingdom. Tina Rothery, who has been convicted for trespassing on Cuadrilla owned land, is appearing at Preston Combined Court to refuse payment of the fine which is the sentence for the conviction.

 

Essential: Politics, Demonstration, Protest, Rally

Main: Society, Law, Law and Order, Court, Preston Combined Court, Economics, Economy, Industry, Business, Cuadrilla, Environment, Energy, Fossil Fuel, Oil and Gas, Gas, Hydraulic Fracturing, Fracking, Frack Free Lancashire, Tina Rothery

People participate in the 'I Am Tina Too' demonstration, in support of Tina Rothery, at Preston Combined Courts on Friday, Dec. 9th, 2016 in Preston, United Kingdom. Tina Rothery, who has been convicted for trespassing on Cuadrilla owned land, is appearing at Preston Combined Court to refuse payment of the fine which is the sentence for the conviction.

 

If the following people turn up...

Essential: Politics, Demonstration, Protest, Rally, Ali Abbas

Main: Friends of the Earth

Comprehensive: Society, Law, Law and Order, Court, Preston Combined Court, Economics, Economy, Industry, Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, Business, Cuadrilla, Environment, Energy, Fossil Fuel, Oil and Gas, Gas, Hydraulic Fracturing, Fracking, Campaign Group, Frack Free Lancashire, Tina Rothery

Ali Abbas, a member of the Friends of the Earth, participates in the 'I Am Tina Too' demonstration, in support of Tina Rothery, at Preston Combined Courts on Friday, Dec. 9th, 2016 in Preston, United Kingdom. Tina Rothery, who has been convicted for trespassing on Cuadrilla owned land, is appearing at Preston Combined Court to refuse payment of the fine which is the sentence for the conviction.

 

Essential: Politics, Demonstration, Protest, Rally, Pete Abel

Main: Friends of the Earth

Comprehensive: Society, Law, Law and Order, Court, Preston Combined Court, Economics, Economy, Industry, Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, Business, Cuadrilla, Environment, Energy, Fossil Fuel, Oil and Gas, Gas, Hydraulic Fracturing, Fracking, Campaign Group, Frack Free Lancashire, Tina Rothery

Pete Abel, a member of the Friends of the Earth, participates in the 'I Am Tina Too' demonstration, in support of Tina Rothery, at Preston Combined Courts on Friday, Dec. 9th, 2016 in Preston, United Kingdom. Tina Rothery, who has been convicted for trespassing on Cuadrilla owned land, is appearing at Preston Combined Court to refuse payment of the fine which is the sentence for the conviction.

 

Essential: Politics, Demonstration, Protest, Rally, Conor Dwyer

Main: Friends of the Earth, Renewable Energy Alliance

Comprehensive: Society, Law, Law and Order, Court, Preston Combined Court, Economics, Economy, Industry, Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, Business, Cuadrilla, Environment, Energy, Fossil Fuel, Oil and Gas, Gas, Hydraulic Fracturing, Fracking, Campaign Group, Frack Free Lancashire, Tina Rothery

Conor Dwyer, who works with Friends of the Earth and the Renewable Energy Alliance, participates in the 'I Am Tina Too' demonstration, in support of Tina Rothery, at Preston Combined Courts on Friday, Dec. 9th, 2016 in Preston, United Kingdom. Tina Rothery, who has been convicted for trespassing on Cuadrilla owned land, is appearing at Preston Combined Court to refuse payment of the fine which is the sentence for the conviction.

 

Essential: Politics, Demonstration, Protest, Rally, Martin Porter

Main: Greenpeace

Comprehensive: Society, Law, Law and Order, Court, Preston Combined Court, Economics, Economy, Industry, Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, Business, Cuadrilla, Environment, Energy, Fossil Fuel, Oil and Gas, Gas, Hydraulic Fracturing, Fracking, Campaign Group, Frack Free Lancashire, Tina Rothery

Martin Porter, a volunteer with Greenpeace, participates in the 'I Am Tina Too' demonstration, in support of Tina Rothery, at Preston Combined Courts on Friday, Dec. 9th, 2016 in Preston, United Kingdom. Tina Rothery, who has been convicted for trespassing on Cuadrilla owned land, is appearing at Preston Combined Court to refuse payment of the fine which is the sentence for the conviction.

 

The people looking for picture are looking for something and they're not stupid. If tonnes of irrelevant images that they have to wade through to find the one image they want, they're not going to come back to Alamy.

 

I've not character checked, but that can be done whilst not/taking this advice and the tags can be easily changed.

[IanGibson]

I guess I will have to contact Alamy because I put my name in quotation marks in my keywords to make it easy for me to quickly find all my images. I just checked to see what is coming up when I search my name and a couple of images on the first page are of elephants and are not mine. They do indeed have my name in the keywords. So a case of copying and not checking the results.

 

Paulette

And I guess that those who copy and paste keywords would be quick enough to complain if someone copied their photographs.

[NYCat]

My email to Alamy was effective. The two offending images are gone. The annoying thing is that they appeared very early on the first page of search results on my name. The quotation marks I use are still not as totally effective as one would like. A few photos on the first page are images that have both my first and last names in the caption but not together.

 

Paulette

[mickfly]

Sorry, wrong topic.

[Phil Robinson]

I feel that copying others' keywords and keyword spamming are two different issues.

I agree. The Alamyrank system is designed to penalise spamming - it's annoying but should, in theory, push the culprits to the bottom of searches - even relevant ones. 

As for copying others' keywords, I thought in the past that Alamy were dead against it, threatening the guilty with all kinds of sanctions. At one time all keywords were hidden from view for that very reason. That no longer seems to be the case.

Like Paulette above I am occassionally 'inspired' by others' keywords, and might add on manually to my own images, but the idea of simply copying and pasting them all is not on - and almost always counter-productive as very few 'similar' images require exactly the same set of keywords.

[CM photo]

 

I feel that copying others' keywords and keyword spamming are two different issues.

I agree. The Alamyrank system is designed to penalise spamming - it's annoying but should, in theory, push the culprits to the bottom of searches - even relevant ones. 

As for copying others' keywords, I thought in the past that Alamy were dead against it, threatening the guilty with all kinds of sanctions. At one time all keywords were hidden from view for that very reason. That no longer seems to be the case.

Like Paulette above I am occassionally 'inspired' by others' keywords, and might add on manually to my own images, but the idea of simply copying and pasting them all is not on - and almost always counter-productive as very few 'similar' images require exactly the same set of keywords.

 

 

Yes, they were hidden.  Does anyone know why they changed this, and what the advantages are?  I know what the disadvantages are; any work you do to research and keyword your images accurately is likely to be parasitised by someone who can't be bothered to do it for themselves. 

[DJ Myford]

I seem to remember Alamy’s justification for their U-turn on invisible keywords was that it would provide buyers with suggestions that they may not have thought of, to help them refine their search.

[CM photo]

Thanks DJ.  I get it now.  Not only does it help other contributors to keyword their images by copying mine, it also encourages potential buyers to look elsewhere.  One is tempted to ask "What's in it for me?" or is this not the done thing?

[wiskerke]

Not sure if this would still be spamming or just not very clever.

 

 

Caption:

Amsterdam bicycle bike transport travel ride park windmill wind power energy electric generate urinal train station

 

Keywords:

abbey, amsterdam, arrange, arrival, arrive, baggage, bamberg, bicycle, bike, boat, bratislava, breakfast, bridge, budapest, bus, cabin, café, camera, canal, car, cathedral, century, church, city, coach, cobblestone, cologne, comfort, concert, confluence, country, cowboy, crew, cross, cruise, culture, deck, demo, depart, dining, dinner, disembark, earphone, enjoy, escape, ethnic, europe, exhibit, exhibition, expert, explore, fligh, food, fountain, free, germany, grand, greet, guest, half-timber, handling, heritage, highlight, historical, holiday, home, horse, hotel, house, hungary, ii, information, inn, itinerary, kitchen, koblenz, landmark, leave, legend, luggage, lunch, main-danube, meal, meet, melk, miltenberg, museum, nation, netherlands, nuremberg, organ, organize, pass, passau, passport, photo, picture, picturesque, plan, prepare, rail, refresh, regensburg, relax, residence, rest, restaurant, rhine, river, room, rothenburg, sausage, scene, scenic, schedule, service, ship, show, shuttle, sight, site, slovakia, staff, station, steep, steps, suitcase, sun, ticket, time, tour, tourism, tower, train, transfer, travel, unesco, vacation, vienna, view, viking, village, visit, war, world, wurzburg

 

Urinal train station. Some people don't think too highly about Amsterdam Central, I know.

 

wim

[IanGibson]

Not sure if this would still be spamming or just not very clever.

 

 

Caption:

Amsterdam bicycle bike transport travel ride park windmill wind power energy electric generate urinal train station

 

Keywords:

abbey, amsterdam, arrange, arrival, arrive, baggage, bamberg, bicycle, bike, boat, bratislava, breakfast, bridge, budapest, bus, cabin, café, camera, canal, car, cathedral, century, church, city, coach, cobblestone, cologne, comfort, concert, confluence, country, cowboy, crew, cross, cruise, culture, deck, demo, depart, dining, dinner, disembark, earphone, enjoy, escape, ethnic, europe, exhibit, exhibition, expert, explore, fligh, food, fountain, free, germany, grand, greet, guest, half-timber, handling, heritage, highlight, historical, holiday, home, horse, hotel, house, hungary, ii, information, inn, itinerary, kitchen, koblenz, landmark, leave, legend, luggage, lunch, main-danube, meal, meet, melk, miltenberg, museum, nation, netherlands, nuremberg, organ, organize, pass, passau, passport, photo, picture, picturesque, plan, prepare, rail, refresh, regensburg, relax, residence, rest, restaurant, rhine, river, room, rothenburg, sausage, scene, scenic, schedule, service, ship, show, shuttle, sight, site, slovakia, staff, station, steep, steps, suitcase, sun, ticket, time, tour, tourism, tower, train, transfer, travel, unesco, vacation, vienna, view, viking, village, visit, war, world, wurzburg

 

Urinal train station. Some people don't think too highly about Amsterdam Central, I know.

 

wim

 

 

I'd really like to see an image which fits all of those keywords!

[Phil Robinson]

Not sure if this would still be spamming or just not very clever.

 

 

Caption:

Amsterdam bicycle bike transport travel ride park windmill wind power energy electric generate urinal train station

 

Keywords:

abbey, amsterdam, arrange, arrival, arrive, baggage, bamberg, bicycle, bike, boat, bratislava, breakfast, bridge, budapest, bus, cabin, café, camera, canal, car, cathedral, century, church, city, coach, cobblestone, cologne, comfort, concert, confluence, country, cowboy, crew, cross, cruise, culture, deck, demo, depart, dining, dinner, disembark, earphone, enjoy, escape, ethnic, europe, exhibit, exhibition, expert, explore, fligh, food, fountain, free, germany, grand, greet, guest, half-timber, handling, heritage, highlight, historical, holiday, home, horse, hotel, house, hungary, ii, information, inn, itinerary, kitchen, koblenz, landmark, leave, legend, luggage, lunch, main-danube, meal, meet, melk, miltenberg, museum, nation, netherlands, nuremberg, organ, organize, pass, passau, passport, photo, picture, picturesque, plan, prepare, rail, refresh, regensburg, relax, residence, rest, restaurant, rhine, river, room, rothenburg, sausage, scene, scenic, schedule, service, ship, show, shuttle, sight, site, slovakia, staff, station, steep, steps, suitcase, sun, ticket, time, tour, tourism, tower, train, transfer, travel, unesco, vacation, vienna, view, viking, village, visit, war, world, wurzburg

 

Urinal train station. Some people don't think too highly about Amsterdam Central, I know.

 

wim

I'm still looking for the sausage - prize to the first one who finds it.

[Ed Rooney]

The photographer had it for lunch.