At iStock the “Most Popular” search option used to show images in order of popularity based on the number of times each image had been downloaded during its life on the site. The first image shown was the one with the most downloads; the 2nd image was the image with the second highest number of downloads, 3rd had the third highest number of downloads and so on. This was true as late as the end of June 2014.
Now, based on examining the portfolios of contributors with many images licensed more than 1,000 times I discovered that there is no longer any sequencing based on the overall popularity. For some of the best selling photographers the first image shown will have no more than a few hundred downloads and the second or third images shown may have fewer than 100 downloads. See a few examples:
| |
July 27 |
|
|
|
|
|
June 30 |
|
| |
No1 |
No 2 |
No 3 |
No 4 |
No 5 |
|
Best |
5th |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Seller |
Seller |
| Yuri |
7300 |
5700 |
1300 |
3200 |
5500 |
|
13000 |
12000 |
| LiseGagne |
2800 |
200 |
70 |
60 |
400 |
|
12000 |
9200 |
| DNY59 |
700 |
900 |
600 |
400 |
500 |
|
7500 |
4800 |
| shironosov |
5900 |
1400 |
4300 |
9400 |
3300 |
|
15000 |
5800 |
| TommL |
200 |
700 |
2500 |
100 |
11000 |
|
11000 |
3300 |
| nyul |
1900 |
1600 |
8600 |
1800 |
1400 |
|
8600 |
1900 |
| LeggNet |
100 |
100 |
70 |
20 |
800 |
|
3800 |
1300 |
| Turnervisual |
4300 |
300 |
1400 |
3400 |
200 |
|
5100 |
3700 |
| abzee |
400 |
60 |
300 |
200 |
1900 |
|
6100 |
2600 |
| anouchka |
24000 |
30 |
200 |
20 |
20 |
|
24000 |
700 |
Since many searches result in more returns than any customer has time to review, many customers have come to rely on the “Most Popular” search option. Their understanding has been that in a few pages they will see the images with a particular keyword that other customers have found most useful. That may no longer be true.
The new approach certainly has the advantage of surfacing a lot of images that customers may not have seen before, but it doesn’t help customers find the images that have been most popular historically. Now, with any particular keyword some of a images that have been downloaded the most times may not be shown until the 400th or 500th return.
The key question is how the search algorithm decides which image to show first. I searched for “woman computer office”. The sixth most popular images only has 300 total downloads, the 9th has 10,000 and the 10th has 100. Interestingly, on this particular search seven of the top 20 images were created by monkeybusinessimages. What is the logic behind how these images are chosen?
| |
Sequence |
Total DL |
Total DL |
| |
In Which |
This Image |
For |
| |
Image Shown |
|
Creator |
| nyul |
1 |
8600 |
170000 |
| monkeybusiness |
2 |
1400 |
580000 |
| goodluz |
3 |
1100 |
23000 |
| endopack |
4 |
7900 |
78000 |
| diego_cervo |
5 |
2100 |
140000 |
| monkeybusiness |
6 |
300 |
580000 |
| monkeybusiness |
7 |
400 |
580000 |
| endopack |
8 |
700 |
78000 |
| silvrshootr |
9 |
10000 |
30000 |
| pressureUA |
10 |
100 |
39000 |
| Peopleimages |
11 |
100 |
1500000 |
| kupicoo |
12 |
300 |
150000 |
| monkeybusiness |
13 |
200 |
580000 |
| shironosov |
14 |
300 |
310000 |
| monkeybusiness |
15 |
200 |
580000 |
| monkeybusiness |
16 |
300 |
580000 |
| ridofranz |
17 |
500 |
78000 |
| chagin |
18 |
200 |
21000 |
| pressureUA |
19 |
100 |
39000 |
| monkeybusiness |
20 |
400 |
580000 |
| diego_cervo |
30 |
400 |
140000 |
| endopack |
40 |
2200 |
78000 |
| skynesher |
50 |
7800 |
410000 |
| EHStock |
60 |
100 |
150000 |
| ridofranz |
70 |
50 |
78000 |
| elenathewise |
80 |
100 |
180000 |
| claudiobaba |
90 |
2300 |
55000 |
| erikona |
100 |
100 |
7800 |
Is “Most Popular” based on the number of downloads of a particular image in the last 30 or 60 days, or is there no basis on popularity whatsoever? If iStock felt a need to add a new search option why did they have to eliminate the “Most Downloads” option that many customers have come to rely on? There is no indication that iStock has explained, or intends to explain to customers – or contributors -- the logic for this change. Is there a good reason for keeping everyone in the dark?
Does this new search option benefit customers? “Most Popular” could mean that in the last 60 days an image has been downloaded 10 times and that is more than most other images using the same search term were downloaded during that period. There is no indication as to what that number might be, but the customer will be able to discover that the images has been downloaded 300 or 3,000 times over its lifespan.
The new system may benefit photographers who are pumping lots of new images onto the site, particularly if those new images have been shown for a while near the top of the “Best Match” search return order. Photographers with a few best selling images, who may have cut back on the number of new images they are contributing could see a major decline in sales as it becomes harder and harder for customers to find their images. There are lots of unanswered questions.