Some more information about the NewsCom/StockPhotoFinder (SPF) partnership directly from SPF´s president Randy Taylor. I asked him if all of the 15 million photos, graphics and illustrations of NewsCom will be availabe through the SPF, or only a part of this huge imagery. Here´s his response:
- It's not yet clear exactly what portion of the total will be included because each image provider is being asked to confirm that they want this marketing, which is free to them as part of their relationship with Newscom.
- Based on current acceptance, it will be at least 5 million images, which we are now actively adding.
- We expect to have roughly 12 million of the 15 million images at the peak of integration.
- On an ongoing basis, we are also receiving between 4,000 and 12,000 new images daily from Newscom in addition to legacy files.
- All Newscom images will be available for search in our free public site at StockPhotoFinder.com and also available for the customized corporate versions that we supply to publishers and advertising agencies.
Randy Taylor pointed out that the StockPhotoFinder developed a new search tool called SPFF Search (pronounced "Spiff Search") which "offers a new way for professionals to find images by providing spontaneous interactivity in which the pictures displayed evolve as each letter is typed in a search query. We believe it is another first for the stock photo industry".
Try for example the search string "business", entering then "man", followed by "suitcase", "woman", "airport" and then "tie". The beta version of SPFF does currently not display the overall number of images which match a single or all entered terms. At least one alternative search tool mainly used in Europe does so, but, on the other hand, that one does not display the matching images instantly.
SPFF Search can be found here (beta) and works best with the latest versions of Firefox and Explorer IE. The beta version displays only one page with results after an initial query, but offers the mouse-over-image feature to access the action tools (Find Similars, Contact Agency, Price Quote, etc.). The website says that the new tool is "being introduced on this public web site for a trial period after which it will be exclusively available with the customized technology solutions" offered by the StockPhotoFinder.
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