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moderator · Moderator Joined: 17 Jan 2008 Posts: 431

Introducing Our New Relevant Sort Order

When we ask our customers what they want from Shutterstock, they say they want better tools to find the right images. Challenge accepted!

This week we’re phasing in a new feature of Shutterstock’s search engine. We’re introducing a new sort order called Relevant.

This search has only one goal, to help customers find the most accurate images based on your keywords. And it gets smarter every day!

When customers perform searches, they will see four buttons to filter their search results:

New, Popular, Relevant and Random.

Here are some common questions and answers about how the new sort order will affect contributors.

Is Relevant now the default search order?
No. This is a new option in addition to our current sort orders, which will function the same as they did before. We may change the default in the future if customers prefer Relevant sort order.

How does the Relevant sort order work?
We built the Relevant sort order as a way to deliver more accurate results to customers. It’s designed to get better over time. We will be refining it as well, based on what we learn. Results will vary from day to day, and may vary from user to user as we make adjustments.

What’s the difference between Popular and Relevant?
Popular looks primarily at the number of times an image has been downloaded. Relevant is a more sophisticated algorithm that considers a mix of factors.

What’s the bottom line for contributors?
Relevant sort order will reward images with accurate keywords. This change will lead to more downloads across the site, which will benefit contributors who supply accurate keywords.

Does Shutterstock have more resources about keywording?
Here are some previous Shutterbuzz stories about how to keyword your images.

* Good Keywords: Part 1
* Good Keywords: Part 2
* Good Keywords: Part 3
* How to Add Multiple Keywords in Photoshop
* Improve Your Sales with Keywording, Part 1
* Improve Your Sales with Keywording, Part 2
* Improve Your Sales with Keywording, Part 3
* Keywording Made Easy With Shutterstock’s Content Editor

evaners · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 12:26 pm

I like this idea a lot. It should result in less frustration for buyers, since they won't need to wade through page after page of unrelated images. And addresses one of the submitters' main complaints -- keyword spamming.

Nice work Shutterstock.

ruxpriencdiam · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 2:47 pm

I see i now have it.

rudyumans · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 3:03 pm

I am not relevant yet.

ruxpriencdiam · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 5:23 pm

I just checked on another computer and dont have it?

So one computer with Firefox has it and one computer with IE8 doesn't have it could someone explain why and if it is going to change because this will also effect the buyers who do and don't have it showing for them as well right??

mtilghma · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 5:27 pm

i am also still irrelevant

kellyplz · Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2011 2:28 pm

Me too. :(
I want to be relevant! ;)

turboal1960 · Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 861 Location: Argentina

Great idea! Probably your new algorithm includes some relation between the keywords introduced by buyers and images downloaded after the search.

Still I'm not seeing the new button on my browser (Chrome)

tovovan · Joined: 02 Nov 2010 Posts: 8

I found that buyers didn`t dowload new images last two weeks. I think it happened becouse of the new relevant feature based on % donloads of the relevant keyword of the image. But new images never were not bought by keyword searching. And these words did not have such relevant keywords! Am i right?

warrenprice · Joined: 15 Dec 2009 Posts: 419 Location: Central Texas

My sales have plummeted since the introduction of this feature. Is it coincidence?

ED: plummeted may be a bit strong. I never had enough sales to "plummet." LOL

But there has been a slow down ... maybe the summer blues?

aynia · Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 2:36 pm

I have not experimented with this. But for the life of me I cannot understand what relevant means!

Surely if someone searches for something... it is relevant for them and they want the choice of oldest, most popular or newest.

Relevant is something that is inbuilt. A yes. It should be there.

But if we have to sort by relevant then.... what on earth does that mean.?

That means.. old, new or popular go out the window.

Come on... is this just another marketing ploy!?

If I search for butterfly (I only have a few)... I would expect to get butterflies and not moths. But some guys use the same keywords... so how on earth does relevant decide that the day flying butterfly I want is better than the moth that some other guy has labelled as a butterfly!!!???

If I was a buyer and had a budget, I would hire a photographer. It might well be cheaper to tell them you want a photo of xy and z than to trawl through the database. In fact ... it will be cheaper if you can get an all round photographer and you have many photo needs. Hire them for a couple of hours and get to keep all their pics! (that is a win win situation)

It is either relevant or not.. if not why search for it.

Please someone explain to me what it means.

And those of you who are market wizards... tell me this is not a marketing ploy!!

I am open to persuasion either way.

Just to add.. SS's way of excluding certain keywords is actually a fantastic idea.

I mean.. if I search for hunter.. and get a cat..... when I want a man with a gun, I can exclude cat or animal from the search. But how does relevant come into this????!!!

mtilghma · Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 4:53 pm

it means that if both you and i have a photo of a boat that has 500 downloads and has the keyword "ocean", but yours was downloaded by 200 people who searched for "ocean" and mine was downloaded by 50 people who searched for "ocean", yours will appear first when someone searches ocean.

tovovan · Joined: 02 Nov 2010 Posts: 8

gwoeii · Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 4:47 am

Thank you! Shutterstock shows they never rest on their laurel :)

sarah2 · Joined: 08 Nov 2009 Posts: 65

Yes, like Tovovan I wonder how it will affect new photos. I've already noticed that few new pics are selling these days whereas some that go way back are doing ok...
If 'most relevant' is based on downloads to date, I can see this really counting against new stuff...or am I missing something?
I know 'most recent' still exists, but 'most relevant' would sound so much more appealing to me if I was a buyer and wanting to avoid pages and pages of (so-called) 'irrelevant' stuff....