Controlled Vocabulary at Cutcaster

Well, I am back for a moment from the Wild wild west of keyword-land and wanted to give you a quick update from the front lines.

First, I want to say thank you to the contributors who have gone back in and refined their keywords to describe just what is in the images and vectors and also add the commas back in. It is a big help and your continued help is very much needed.

While going through the keywords and getting them as descriptive as possible and in line with the searching tools we are about to unleash, you will notice that some of your files will now have the option to edit keywords locked on your media details page. You will not be able to re-edit these files' keywords. You will still be able to edit everything else about the file but the keywords are now locked and you must send us an email if you would like to add or take out keywords now going forward. This is so we can get some control over the keywords that are being used in the database and also make our search only return relevant results.

Here are some things to help you that relate to controlled vocabulary and can be found on David Riecks Controlled Vocabulary site.

"Think Like a Buyer:
Buyers are looking for images that clearly represent the subject matter of the images without your interpretation or guesswork. For example, an image of a child at the beach eating a dripping ice cream cone clearly conveys summer. A studio food shot of an ice cream cone does not necessarily imply the same concept or meaning. A buyer who specifically has ice cream in mind to represent summer will use search terms to find "ice cream cone", not summer.

-Apply keywords consistently. If windsurfing should alternatively be keyworded as; wind surfing, then ALL of your windsurfing / wind surfing images should contain both versions of the word.

-Do not apply human attributes and emotions to images of animals; For example; love, smiling and happy are ok if used with images of humans, but "smiling dog" is likely to confuse a researcher."

We are going to be introducing our new "controlled vocabulary" very soon which will help everyone and are excited to get our keywords under control. If you have any questions please post below and I will be more than happy to explain. For more information on metatagging and controlled vocabulary visit David Riecks site.

Update to Cutcaster Search coming

Hey Guys,

I wanted to share with you a BIG update as a contributor to Cutcaster.

Our search algorithm and the way we will organize search is being completely re-vamped and introduced in the next week after a month of tireless work. For such a young site, we are going to have an awesome search engine and will help us attract buyers who are sick of irrelevant search results and looking for fresh, unique content.

At this time, I do not have the man-power to go through each image and revise the keywords ourselves, which I wish I could do. I have reviewed some of your images and if you were to tailor your keywords and titles more specifically to each image you will greatly maximize your profitability and where you will show up in search result. It’s not about quantity but quality keywords. I understand it is time consuming to go your keywords for each image, and I am not doing this to enrage anyone or pick on anyone but this is the best way for us to attract buyers with the most relevant search. This will lead to contributors having more sales. It is a missed opportunity for everyone if the images are not keyworded properly and this is an area where we can compete and beat the big boys in but only with your help.

This weekend and next week, we are going to do a major keyword and title edit to most of your files so they conform more with what we will be searching for on the site. If you have identified your files off the site by title or some other metadata which lets you know which files are on which site please let us know so we can work together. We will be making some changes and edits to your files metadata but we still need your help mostly. Also some of your keywords are not separated by commas. If they are not can you please add a comma into the spaces where it should belong, followed by a space i.e. dog, animal, family pet, pet etc.

Secondly, I want to personally thank you for uploading your photos and vectors to the site. Cutcaster has been a longtime dream in the making and your contribution is invaluable to the site’s continued growth and success! Cutcaster has grown exponentially since we launch it just 8 months ago. I promise to continue to work tirelessly to improve and grow the site which is happening. We are here for the long haul and need your help.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions about keywording. I really appreciate you taking the time and wish you the best of luck selling your images on Cutcaster.

Best Regards,

John

P.S. Here are some resources to help you with keywording and titling.


Image titles-How important are they?

Image keywording and describing content.

How much your image and vector description matters at Cutcaster?

Extra keywords- Do you use them and are they effective?

On another forum, people are discussing the usefulness of certain types of keywords. I was just wondering as to how useful these keywords actually are. What do you think? Here's the list:

# Insignificant People - For those blurry folks in the background.
# Nobody - To tag a shot with no humans in it.
# Selective Focus - When the foreground is in focus and the background is not, or vice-versa.
# Blurred Background - Specific type of selective focus (above).
# Blurred Foreground - Same as Blurred Background (above).
# Blurred Motion - Long exposure maps to this.
# Full Frame - When composition encompasses entire viewing area.
# Horizontal - Wide format.
# Vertical - Tall format.
# Waist Up - Top half of human subject only.
# Waist Down - Bottom half of human subject only.
# Isolated - Separated object or person done by color or background.
# Isolated objects - Separated object or person done by color or background.
# Clipping path - Isolation includes a path embedded in the file data.
# Isolated on white - Isolated on a white background.
# isolated on black - Isolated on a black background.
# Square - Square format as the name implies.
# Copy Space (Copyspace) - has designated location for copy text.
# Still Life - For example, a vase of flowers is a still life.
# Single Object - When a single subject is the only thing in the frame.
# Concepts - A photo that tells a specific story. Think metaphor.
# Backgrounds - Photo's primary use is a background, incl. patterns, etc.
# Studio shot - Photo taken in a studio or similar controlled environment.
# Portrait - Head and shoulders shot is typical.
# Head On - Straight on (no angles) from lens to subject.
# From Side - Shot taken from a side angle.
# Profile - Same as From Side (above).
# Low/Down Angle - Taken from beneath the subject or there abouts.
# High/Up Angle - Taken from above the subject or there abouts.
# Full Body - Capture entire human form, from head to toe.
# Perspective - Any unusual angle to include Low and High (above).
# Sepia - Photo given a sepia tone process to make it look old.
# B/W (Black and White) - A black and white image.
# Monochromatic - A single color tint, usually black (with white).
# Grayscale - See B/W and Monochromatic above.
# Color Image - Shot in full color.
# Full Frame - Subject comprises entire exposure area.
# Color Image - Shot in full color.
# Single Object - I guess the name says it all.
# Group of Objects - Ditto, but multiplied.

Image, keywording and description help

At Cutcaster, the majority of our search results use your title, description and keywords to get your images and videos found. How well you title, describe and keyword your content is how well it will come up in search results on the site and on popular search engines. I really need your help making sure that your content is properly labeled. I know it takes more time but we need this to be concise, clear and relevant so buyers are put off. Since we are in the early stages of our site we have a real opportunity to keep the search results as relevant as possible and keep buyers happy. I had a conversation with 2 potential buyers today and they said they biggest consideration for using a site was search results relevancy so I am going to be stressing this and working to help you guys. We are only so many people here at Cutcaster i.e. not many, so we need all your help.

Here we go.

From the title:

- the subject and the "role" it plays ("boy petting dog," "mother feeding child," "dog barking at squirrel")

- do NOT use punctuation, exclamation or any other marks or weird characters in the titles

From the description: Get as descriptive as you can

- Information about age (newborn, young, old, senior, mature adult, over the hill, child, stone age)
- What is it like? (hot, dry, putrid, wet, yellow, rusty)
- What is the subject wearing? (t-shirt, nude, coat, viser, jean shorts, etc.).
- Name of or type of building or designation? (apartment complex, oil rig, office).
- For animals/plants - scientific name, common name, color (if relevant).
- What time of day, if relevant (sunrise, dawn, dusk, midday, noon, sunset, night).
- Seasons, if relevant (spring, fall, summer, winter).


From the keywords:

- Words that match the subject/concept
- Synonyms (words that mean the same thing, but look different)
- you only need 10-20 keywords at most
- don't over keyword

If you notice content on the site that is spamming on keywords or not categorized right will you please notify us by clicking on this button "Flag this Media" on the media details page. You will be helping us all if you do it and buyers will be more likely to come to the site because results will be relevant.

Choose your words wisely- Keywording Help

Why do we say that at Cutcaster ;-)

So, you’ve got that shot. Everything is perfect. You’ve nailed the exposure and focus. The composition couldn’t be better and you burned the midnight oil at your computer in your digital “darkroom,” preening and fluffing that shot or your clip to perfection. The only thing that is left before you send it out to the world of buyers and viewers is to make sure your keywording correctly describes your hard work so it doesn't fall into the content abyss.

Keywording your content is important for many reasons due to the technological impairments we encounter when identifying and trying to search for content online. No great solutions have popped up to help us with this and we must rely on human input of keywords/metadata to make it easier for us to search for what we are looking for. We have talked at lengths about this search and cataloguing problem.

All too often clips and photos which are poorly keyworded are lost into this content abyss and out of site for interested parties. It does you no good if you have that great shot and no one can find it. For selling content, keywording is one of the most important steps towards making sure you content is found.

Here are a few ethical tips to help you with keywording your valuable content either to sell it or make it easier to find on other sites. If you know any others please add them in the comments.

1. Know the point or concept behind the clip or photo you have shot. You should always be thinking about your target audience and what they would be interested in or how they would search for it.

2. All your keywords have to be relevant. We have had countless conversations or seen many community threads started by angry searchers who say they find many irrelevant keywords and content in their searches because uploaders spam the keyword section. This may help your contents chances of being seen but can irritate and completely turn off a buyer or viewer if it is totally off base.

3. You should not turn keywording into a word association game. Don't try to take your concept six steps down the road and turn it into something it isn't. I.E. mouse --> hole --> cheese --> cat --> pet. This doesn't help anyone.

4. Don't include keywords that are not in the shot. Some common repeat offenders are sex, sexy, woman, babe. We can only guess what they are looking for.

5. A thesaurus can be great if you run out of ideas or if English is your second language. You can find help online or in your Microsoft Word.

6. Using antonyms are useful but only when describing certain clips or images. A good example is "go" and then using the opposite "stop" for a traffic light. Or "hot" and "cold" when describing a thermometer.

7. When English is your first language, one must always be aware that their can be different meanings to the same words. There are some subtle differences between American English which you would learn in Japan, the Philippines and Russia and British English which is taught in India, Pakistan, Australia and much of Africa. Our advice is to cater to both forms of English when keywording as buyers and viewers are able to find it from all over the world.

These little tips should help you with your keywording. When all else fails it may be time to call your 7th grade English teacher for a little help.

There are keywording programs available. Here are a few below.

http://www.keywording.com
http://www.abouttheimage.com
http://www.a2zkeywording.com
http://www.jaincotech.com
http://www.keywordcompiler.com
http://www.keedup.com
http://www.africamediaonline.com
http://www.keywordingindia.com
http://www.onasiadigital.com
http://www.careydam.com
http://www.adnetinfosystems.com/
http://www.keywords-to-go.com/
http://www.keywordcompiler.com/