PicScout and PhotoShelter have announced an agreement under which the work of PhotoShelter photographers will be included in PicScout’s Image Index, Registry and Connection platform. This offers some 50,000 individual PhotoShelter users access to the same PicScout technology used by major agencies to track uses of their images.
Images indexed by ImageIRC are marked with an information icon in search results of users who have downloaded the PicScout beta browser add-on. Clicking on the information icon displays image metadata and offers a one-click connection to the image owner’s—in this case, PhotoShelter-hosted—Web site for licensing. During the first stage, ImageIRC will assimilate 8 million publicly available and priced PhotoShelter-hosted images.
PhotoShelter chief executive officer Allen Murabayashi believes this will increase image sales for photographers using the company’s Web site solution. “With PicScout, our photographers not only will enjoy a new channel for image buyers to discover and license their work, they also are assured that image ownership and attribution is clearly identified, which provides greater image protection and promotion,” he said in a statement.
PicScout chief executive officer Offir Gutelzon said the partnership delivers on PicScout’s promise to find a way for individual photographers to participate in ImageIRC. The partners stress that their combination of services will reach more photo buyers, 61% of which use search engines to find and purchase images, according to PhotoShelter research.
During a trial period of yet-unknown length, compensation for PicScout-delivered sales will be waved. Financial terms will be announced later, along with an opportunity for PhotoShelter photographers to opt out of the PicScout ImageIRC indexing service. Future phases of the partnership between the two companies will see the addition of PicScout’s ImageTracker to services offered alongside the PhotoShelter online archive product.
Murabayashi and Gutelzon will host a free Webinar on Feb. 23 to discuss details. It requires pre-registration.