Saturday, May 9, 2015

iStock keywording rant

A few months ago I've decided to start contributing to iStock. I'm not much of a photographer, but the thinking was: I can get to some places which might be interesting for others.

So I've started uploading pics of pretty datacenters, 10Gig switches and the likes. And keywording these accurately for what they are, being as specific as I can.

One thing I've noticed from the most downloaded photos is that they have all the keywords in the world, which have nothing to do with the photo, kinda like websites in the early 2000's having everything up to and including 'sex' and 'mp3', because they were popular search term.

The title pic is a very nice patchpanel, from the Signature collection of iStock.
Now let's check out its keywords:

Computer Network, Node, Cable, Fiber Optic, Router, Computer Cable, Communication, Wireless Technology, Business, Telecommunications Equipment, LED, Network Connection Plug, CPU, Control Panel, rj45, Control Room, isp, Power Line, Internet, data center, Computer Part, access point, Equipment, Light - Natural Phenomenon, Close-up, Wired, Network Security, Network Server, Modem, Rack, Midsection, Number, Connection, Support, Concepts, White, Blue, Black Color, Ideas, Technology, Macro, Computer

Most of them are far fetches, the weirdest are in highlight. Is this any use to anybody at all, from the buyers side? Buyers really never search for specific terms and they never know anything about the brands/devices they're looking for? I'm not that convinced, but I'm a novice on the platform, so maybe so. Comments are most welcome.

In the meantime, I've started to collect brand-specific lightboxes, maybe they'll be some use to some folks:

Cisco switches lightbox
HP switches lightbox