PicApp just went a step beyond releasing a plugin for the world’s most popular blogging platform. The company has announced that Automattic, the company behind WordPress, is integrating PicApp’s embed code on WordPress.com.
Notably, PicApp has also changed its approach to advertising. In its latest statement, the company bills its approach as unobtrusive: “Unlike other content syndication product that include intrusive advertising, the PicApp solution uses a subtle and user friendly approach that lets the end users engage with more related photos on its photo gallery pages.”
Automattic’s vice president of media services Raanan Bar-Cohen agrees: “PicApp’s wide selection of content along with the appropriate copyrights and unobtrusive advertising approach represented the key factors for WordPress.com.”
Automattic was founded by digital prodigy Matt Mullenweg, whose tender age continues to be the running joke. The company leads the Open Source WordPress project, runs WordPress.com and a host of other technology projects and Web sites. For PicApp, platform integration is a big deal: WordPress currently boasts 7.5 bloggers, 37 million posts and 1.2 billion pageviews per month. It is among the fastest growing Web sites and likely the fastest growing blogging platform.
PicApp currently offers some 20 million images from agencies such as Getty Images, Corbis, Newscom, Fame Pictures, Admedia Photo, Entertainment Press, Zuma Press, Image Source and Pacific Coast News. Each embedded image comes with a photo gallery of related images, which also displays ads and provides a monetization tool.