If you love Shutterstock, are a Google Chrome user and want Shutterstock to know everywhere you go and everything you do on the Internet, you may want to install the new
Shutterstock Tab just launched today. You can get the tab free of charge by going to the
Chrome webstore.
When you start to install the tab you are warned that Shutterstock will be able to:
- Read and change your data on all shutterstock.com sites
- Read the icons of the websites you visit
- Read a list of your most frequently visited websites
Once the tab is installed, every time you launch Chrome you are presented with a beautiful full-screen image from the Shutterstock collection, the Shutterstock logo in the top left corner, and the time date and weather. The photographer’s credit can also be found in the bottom left corner of the screen. If you click on the photographer’s name you are taken to the photographer’s portfolio on Shutterstock.
Each image displayed is handpicked from Shutterstock’s vast collection of 65 million+ images, vectors, and illustrations.
Shutterstock Hackathon
Shutterstock Tab is the latest search innovation to come out of Shutterstock’s regular company hackathons. Once a year, usually in July, Shutterstock hosts a company wide 24-hour hackathon known as “Hack to the Future.” This event is open to everyone in the company and designed to promote collaboration and communication among colleagues who might not typically work with each other on a daily basis. Three times a year the company also hosts smaller 24-hour hackathons called CodeRage that are specifically for the engineering, design and product teams.
The three guiding principles for these hacks are to build something with contributor impact, customer impact or employee value in mind. Other than that they are largely open events where people come together to bring their ideas to life. For more information about the hackathons see this
article.
The goal of this hackathon was to “create something practical as well as beautiful - bringing calm and inspiration to a users daily browse activities.”
Additional Explanation - 6/12/2015
Shutterstock has provided some additional clarification regarding the permissions pop up during installation. Shutterstock
does not store user specific internet browsing behavior or information with this tool. Below is a little more clarification around the standard terminology that Google Chrome used in the permissions pop up.
1. "Read and change your data on all shutterstock.com sites" - this is to allow the extension to request image and weather data. No customer information is stored by Shutterstock.
2. "Read a list of your most frequently visited websites" - this allows the extension to show the "Visited Sites" feature in the bottom right corner of screen. This information is never stored by Shutterstock.
3. "Read the icons of the websites you visit" - this allows the extension to show site favicons on the "Visited Sites" feature at the bottom right corner of the screen. Again this information is never stored by Shutterstock.