Anyone Else Notice Odd Search via Portfolio?

So wondering why today I am having 1/10 of the sales that I would normally have on a Monday, I start sorting the portfolio by BM and notice that the vast majority of all Agency and vetta images are on the very LAST page of the sort.  Starting to think that this has something to do with sales that would not buy me two lattes in an entire day.

Is anyone else noticing this? 

Is this a bug?

 

Search wasn't working at all for at least  couple of hours earlier. That would account for a little bit of a drop. It's also a holiday in Canada and a minor holiday in the US (apparently). But that still doesn't account for the massive drop in your sales.

Hi Kelly,

Here's what I see on the 1st page of your PF sorted by BM:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1999508/screenshots/screen121008-205141.png


And here's the last page bottom:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1999508/screenshots/screen121008-205443.png

So basically, no, I don't see what you're seeing at all. But this is kind of why we don't have threads about the BM, because everyone sees a different sort order, which may be influenced by location, buying history and a load of other never to be revealed secrets.

Sorry your sales are down, but this doesn't look like the culprit.

For what it's worth, when I look at your port, the first page by BM is heavily Agency and Vetta loaded (4 of the top 10 are Agency). The last page has no Agency or Vetta.

Whoa Kelvin... that is not at all what I am seeing, my entire last page displaying 200 per page is all Agency files.
Let me see if I can grab a screeny here.

yeah, I don't get the wild fluctuations in sales lately... it is quickly becoming unsustainable on a major scale to keep shelling out money and time to put effort in to my portfolio for such a massive decline as this.  I mean it is absolutely startling this major drop, as in WAY out of the ordinary, which is why I brought it up.

Let me try and grab screens


 

Not sure if this will work, I've never tried sharing a file in a forum via dropbox before....
This is the first page that I see
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cyoq3crl23mr1gp/Screen%20shot%202012-10-08%20at%201.20.51%20PM.png 
This is the last page I see
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n39iu4v1ombhuhg/Screen%20shot%202012-10-08%20at%201.21.10%20PM.png 

^ The screen shots work.

I do understand your concern, but like I said, the BM these days can vary quite substantially from person to person.

Thanks for looking and feeding back as well David (dcdp)  It's very strange... I understand that custom search and buying plays a role, but from what I am seeing on my end it seems really grossly "off".
I went and took a look  at others portfolios.... I am seeing this same odd sort with all Agency on the last page.  I just looked at SJLocke's portfolio and Lise Gagne's... they all show with Agency and Vetta populating the last page.

So it's not just my portfolio, and if I am seeing a search result like this - how about customers?  Are they as well?


 

Curious. I see your first and last page EXACTLY the way they are in your screen shots.


 


ETA: Yup, and sjlocke's port too has all Agency on the last page when I look at it.

(Edited on 2012-10-08 14:38:37 by nicolebranan)

So very curious. I get more Dave's view, loads of Vettas and Agency. In CT, USA, for what it's worth.

Okay... thank you Nicole - so at least I know I'm not going insane here AND that this view is not isolated to just me.
Thanks for weighing in.
And Jonathan - thank you as well.
This is, as Nicole put it, "curious" indeed. 

As I understand it, since they introduced the local search factors a few years ago to the BM, there is no general "what customers see" kind of view. There are are just lots of individuals, all of who may see a different order based on the many factors that influence the BM.

The BM formula is often speculated upon but what little we do know is that location and buying history apparently influence what will be shown in what order. So what is promoted in one search in one part of the world may be demoted in another territory. Those who have a history of buying Agency files apparently have a better chance of seeing those higher up in their BM sort order etc.

But HQ are very cagey about confirming what makes up the formula and it's very hard to draw any wider conclusions when everyone is seeing something different and also when the formula is tweaked as often as it is. But anyway, I can't see any evidence here of a bug, just the BM working in the idiosyncratic way it is set to work.

Hope your sales pick up soon

BM seems extremely wishy-washy, it always has seemed that way.  I'll never understand why unimportant things such as region, previous search adn buying habits are a factor in a search.  It should be keywords and parameters that are relevant to the an image - not a big generalization.

If I am a customer buying a bunch of Goldfish in a Bowl for a huge Goldfish sale, and my searches have been predominatntly that for a month, then I need to go look for Boxing Gloves... my previous search for goldfish weighing in on my search for Boxing Gloves is irrelevant.
I'd be cagey if I were HQ as well, about releasing information about an imperfect and volatile search system like this, it often times seems to be the great mystery shrouded in unicorn powder.
That doesn't cut it when artists are trying to sustain themselves and produce content for the Magical Mystery Tour of Search Possibilities.

Let me be clear, I'm not bitching.  I'm just stating an observation based on what I am experiencing and from what I am hearing from others on what htey are seeing in regards to this sort.  I wouldn't call it a "feature" I'd say that it is most certainly crippling sales.
Sales lost for contributors is sales lost for iStock/Getty, I just wish they would wake up and see that.

Thanks for your input Kelvin, I know you're in a tough position with these touchy subjects (they shouldn't be touchy... we really should be able to openly discuss this stuff civily, ya know).  Do know that your input is certainly appreciated

I am bitching. The end of my portfolio sorted by BestMatch is nothing but agency files. However, there are only two duplicate pages of results being returned. If I start on page 63 and then go to 62 and then 61 and then 60 I am getting the same two pages of results returned alternating. Something is obviously screwed up. This is not a BestMatch paradigm situation.

In other words if I go to the end of my portfolio and work backwards I am getting a limited number of results returned repeatedly. Which may account for something. And is probably related to the screw up this morning.

eta: After further searching anything after page 24 is all of my agency files repeated over and over again. The system things that I have 40 pages of agency files at 200 page. I'm pretty sure I do not have 8000 agency files. This makes me wonder if the rest of my portfolio is unviewable today.

This is me viewing my portfolio logged out. So it doesn't seem related to my login. However going to Lise's portfolio, if I dropped the images per page to 50, I get the same kind of repeating results.

(Edited on 2012-10-08 15:53:58 by sjlocke)

I checked my port sorted by BM and it is mostly as expected: new files, most recently sold files, Vetta/Agencies ,... nothing unusual that I can see. Maybe they alredy fixed earlier issues that you have observed ...

@Sean: it may well be that the odd results you're seeing are a knock on effect from the work done earlier to restore the search results. I can see your PF just fine. Let's see what happens when the index runs again.

If you sort by BM, 200 per page, go to page 62, then 61, then 60, you don't see the same files repeating on alternating pages?

On Lise's page, I can see the fat Santa in the mirror, as well as others, repeating.

Here's what I see:

Page 62: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1999508/screenshots/screen121008-230650.png

Page 61: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1999508/screenshots/screen121008-230824.png

Page 60:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1999508/screenshots/screen121008-230916.png


That's not showing the whole 200 per page - but I didn't see any duplicates.

(Edited on 2012-10-08 16:11:29 by kelvinjay)

That's not all at what I am seeing. I'm can't upload right now, so no proof, but maybe Kelly can confirm.

There was a site issue with search earlier today for about an hour. Perhaps some of us are just seeing a cache or something that the others are not. Either way, me and others are seeing things as they should be even if you, Kelly and others are not. Like I said, let's see what we're all seeing after the site index has run again and see what's what then.

(Edited on 2012-10-08 16:17:16 by kelvinjay)