Using Google Base For Selling Stock Photography

In early summer 1999 Miroslaw Malek told me that a new start up named Google, founded in September 1998, was starting to develope a new and completely different internet search engine. I thought "Heck, who cares?", because the internet search engine market seemed to be overcrowed at that time with successful companies like Yahoo, Altavista, etc. Back at my desk in the evening, I checked out Google (and Teoma), some of the underlying principles and have been using it ever since. Altavista, who?

When Google introduced Gmail on April 1, 2004, although furnished with tons of new and different features, I still thought "Heck, who cares? Email is simply email, you can´t reinvent the wheel even if you´re Larry Page or Sergey Brin, how can they think they could be more innovative than Yahoo mail and all the other webmail services?" Weeks later I received an invitation to Gmail and have been using it ever since (and remember, it´s still beta).

When Google introduced Google Base on November 15, 2005, I didn´t pay much attention and had no time to dig deeper into this topic.

But David Sanger, the new president of the Stock Artists Alliance, started immediately one day later to work with Google Base and loaded up 200 fine art prints and afterwards "all 6000 images". And it´s obviously working. Generating new revenues. Without paying a middleman.

David Sanger adds in an email:

I've been using various forms of Google for marketing for a few years and this is quite a promising service, especially for independent photographers. I've used it mainly for prints, but clearly they are gearing up for hundreds of thousands or millions of entries.

Who would have thought, but I now make regular stock sales from clients who find me via Google... .

Actually they [Google Base] are quite interested in photographers. It lends itself to high volume and to structured data. For people who already have thousands of images, keywords, etc. in a database it might offer a quick way to market. We'll see if it ramps up and who comes there looking. Results may well show up in main Google pages at some point.

Now rumors are that they'll also introduce a payment system Google Wallet, kind of like PayPal.

At Stock Artists Alliance we are particularly interested now in exploring additional options for photographers, portals etc. Our members work with over 150 distributors now. Of course Getty, Corbis and JupiterImages are the main ones. But others are growing. My own involvement with Alamy has been very successful.

How Digital Railroad, PhotoShelter and others play out as a venue for direct or almost direct sales will be very interesting. Add Google to the mix and photographers have more opportunity to sell direct and avoid the middlemen.

David Sanger has currently 5423 images online.

Denise Gamboa, resonsible for the Google Base Product Marketing, picked up the item in a blog post on January 20, 2005: "In the Spotlight: David Sanger Photography" (Official Google Base Blog):

Since launch, people have found creative ways to use Google Base to their advantage, whether for personal or business use. Here is David Sanger'’s story about how Google Base has helped his stock photography business.

Quoting David again:

Since our website already has a searchable database of images with extensive keywording, buyers can search the site for images under any combination of keywords like "Golden Gate Bridge" or "South Africa wines" or "romantic tropical beach". Each image has a dedicated page with a unique URL where a buyer can license the image or order a fine art print from our specialty printer, Pictopia.

What was missing was a place for the general public to easily conduct such a search, and Google Base provided the perfect solution. Buyers can search for golden gate bridge fine art prints or south africa pictures or romantic tropical beach prints and order their prints directly.

The master database is kept in Filemaker Pro and we already had an extract to upload to MYSQL on our web host. Google Base offers the option to bulk upload a file as a tab-delimited text file or in various XML formats. We chose to use the text file. With Filemaker it was easy to define additional fields to create an extract file with the image URL, a link to the image thumbnail, descriptive info including keywords, and some custom attributes. Setting up the FTP access went quickly and within a few hours the records were uploaded. It still took several days to work out details, making changes along the way. One of the best points about Google Base is that you can re-upload whenever you want, to add new images and correct or adjust keywords.

For a small stock photography business the most difficult task is to get visibility for individual offerings. We already use Google Sitemaps and Google Images to gain visibility but there's currently no option for adding descriptive, searchable metadata. Google Base offers the flexibility and quick turnaround we need to post new material and to change product details. The custom attributes will allow us to fine tune the offering over time.

In terms of results, our recent Christmas print sales were the best ever. Recent sales through Google, Froogle and Google Base include a BMW dealer looking for large photo murals of Oktoberfest and a Hollywood film studio looking for a Prague street scene.

As a Board member of Stock Artists Alliance, the professional association for stock photographers, I am also keenly aware of the need for new ways for individual photographers to offer their images to the market. Google Base certainly has the potential to empower small stock photo businesses to reach out to buyers worldwide."

So Google offers now two possibilities to search for images, the well-known Google Images and Google Base, the latter working with labels and attributes. Google´s plans are to integrate specific items uploaded to Google Base into the main directory of Google ("If your item is highly relevant, it may also appear in Google searches or on other Google properties like Froogle and Google Local"). However, company spokesman Nathan Tyler added in an interview with a SIG magazine that Google Base uses another ranking system than the internet search engine Google.

I tried out Google Base myself, uploaded an image and found it pretty easy to use. Photobuyers can pay via Cash, Check, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, Amex or Wire transfer. I added in the notes field "PayPal preferred", but have not been able yet to confirm if Google Base will accept this kind of payment.

The default number of days after which uploaded items expire is officially 31 days, however when uploading an image Google said in the control panel "Item does not expire." And I found other items from other users which are older than 31 days.

Currently over 7,8 million items in Google Base are tagged with "Images."

Google states that "Google Base will host your content (for free) on a unique web address" and "you can edit or archive your items at any time". I thought that it´s even for Google impossible to offer unlimited space and storage, but Google states "There's currently no limit to the number of items you can submit. However, if you'd like to send us more than 100,000 items, please contact us so we can ensure that the uploading process goes smoothly." Walgreens has currently 932,253 items online.

Anyway, what are the consequences for photographers?

• Google Base is currently not a simple backup service for your images.
• Photographers don´t have to pay the middlemen any longer:

• No monthly fees to services like Digital Railroad or PhotoShelter (the photo seller pays).
• No split of revenues with a percentage driven model, like Alamy with the Blue-model or (65% to you) or the Green model (75% to you + storage fees) (the photo seller pays).
• No download fees (the model where the photo buyer pays a fixed amount of money for downloading, like Fotofinder).
• More visibility, more awareness, as Google Base certainly has the power to become a "One Stop Shopping" place (although Google has to do stepwise a lot of refinement work).

The Stock Photo Industry does not exist and does not stay alive because Jonathan Klein, Steve Davis and Alan Meckler are outstanding photographers, but excellent sales man.
However, with this way any photographer with a 50/50 split needs to sell two images to generate the same revenues as if he´d sell his images with Google Base.

If the young generation of photobuyers (the people who like to try out uncommon new ways) is going to continue to use Google Images like in the past, then they will certainly also use Google Base. But will Google Base be able to create a community of photobuyers and attract enough professional buyers?

• "Those who attended New Orleans [PACA 2003 meeting] will remember the fireworks sparked when one art director said she prefers using GOOGLE to going to an agency, and then calling photographers directly." (Link and also in "Google Image Search And Professional Photo Researchers")

It will be interesting to notice how stock photo agencies might want to work with Google Base. Currently, if you enter "photo agency" in Google Base, there is only a text link to the photo agency Galbe.com.

But, more interestingly, what might be the consequences for the micropayment sites like iStockphoto and all the other services? These photographers might simply be able to sell their images through Google Base and make real money with it, not only a dime. The same goes partially for Flickr.

In the present status quo Google Base is by far not going to replace existing services like Digital Railroad, PhotoShelter, IPNStock, etc. Google needs to add some online image management features (IPTC fields like in Picasa, acquired by Google in July 2004), a real backup service and the integration of Google Wallet. But although in its infancy, in the case of David Sanger Google Base had been able to generate revenues otherwise not generated through all the other portals and platforms.

Google Base is just two and a half months old. What happens if in two or three years the basic functionality e.g. PhotoShelter offers is just another feature, among others, of Google Base? Until then, Google Base is a promising new part of the distribution mix independent photographers should pursue.

[Update from David Sanger, Jan. 31, 2006:

Google Base has no storage fees because they don't actually store images, just the text data and keywords and URL's you send. You have to provide a URL for the image and also a URL for a page on your site (or Alamy's or Digital Railroad or Corbis or anywhere) which will be the through link to a page where you or someone else can make the sale.
Photographers could for example make entries for all their Alamy.com pages.
But Google Base won't search the page you reference for any keywords etc. You 'd have to provide them yourself as part of the Google Base entry.]

Related:

• About Google Base
• Wikipedia: Google Base
• Google Wants To Be Your Bank, Too (techdirt)
• All you need to know about Google Wallet

Technorati Tags: Google Base; Stock Photography; David Sanger; micropayment stock photo sites

Comments

[valnur]

We are in a similar market as Google Base but our product gives structure (while still not imposing any set of predefined categories) to our index and therefore makes it possible for users to not only perform keyword search but also browse hierarchically with the ability to specify unlimited number of filters to refine their search.

Valnur
http://www.valnur.com