Google, Images and rights

content, google, in-image, keyword, mobile, photo organizing, Search, Social Media, visual recognition October 16, 2018 Paul Melcher 1 Comment

Ever since its inception, in 2001, Google Image Search did not show much love to those who create photographs. In fact, when subsequently sued for recreating and publishing thumbnails of images on its result page, it fought back and won. A victory that forever helped devalue pictures thereafter. A reversal of policy Google considered photos as freely available assets to classify and display and by result, helped comfort this illusion to its users. They hugely benefited from the complete absence of a central organization (unlike the music, TV…

New study analyzes what’s driving the explosion in user-generated videos and hybrid photo-videos

imaging, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, phablet, photo organizing, photo sharing, prosumer, Social Media, study, tablet, technology, video September 5, 2018 Paul Melcher Leave a comment

Videos and phodeos surge into the Mainstream Consumer video sure ain’t what it used to be. The category now includes numerous variations, ranging from full-length to short-form narratives, plus what could be called “phodeos”: hybrids of photos and videos such as Boomerang clips, Instagram Stories, and even the (now venerable) GIF animations. Due in large part to these new options that free consumers from the “one (huge) size fits all” straightjacket of the past, motion imaging is more popular now than ever. Are we witnessing a bubble? Or…

Pursuing low hanging fruit or the long tail?

computer vision, content, editing, imaging, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, photo merchandise, prosumer, Social Media, technology, Visual 1st August 29, 2018 Hans Hartman Leave a comment

The proliferation of cameras, visual formats, and monetization methods are transforming the consumer imaging industry It’s not really new: consumers want – and are getting – more and more finite choices for buying exactly the types of products they need. Specialty retail stores are making a comeback, SMBs with niche products can now easily get nationwide (and to some extent overseas) distribution through Amazon, and big brand vendors keep adding collections of boutique brands that address specific use cases and consumer segments. What is new…

Visual 1st 2018 update: Announcing 35 speakers, 13 sponsoring vendors, 7 sponsoring media/associations

AR, Augmented reality, computer vision, content, depth imaging, Facial recognition, imaging, Marketplace, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, phablet, photo merchandise, photo organizing, photo sharing, PhotoTech, Social Media, tablet, technology, video, Visual 1st August 15, 2018 Hans Hartman Leave a comment

Greetings! I hope the summer is treating you well. My co-host Alexis Gerard and I are very pleased with how our Visual 1st 2018 conference is shaping up and we’d like you to be part of it! With 68 days to go until Visual 1st (formerly Mobile Photo Connect), buying your ticket now will optimize your pre-conference exposure through a listing on our Attendees-to-date and our Attendee app trailer pages. It will also give you a 15% chance of winning an Insta360 Nano S camera ($239 value). Courtesy of our partner Insta360, we’ll raffle 15 of these…

Visual apps: Photo, Video, Photo + Video?

Augmented reality, computer vision, content, Content Recognition, editing, imaging, Marketplace, mobile, photo merchandise, photo sharing, PhotoTech, research, Snapchat, study, video July 11, 2018 Hans Hartman Leave a comment

Last year we changed the name of our conference, from Mobile Photo Connect to Visual 1st. Besides wanting to affirm our focus that visuals are increasingly at the core of how people communicate and retain their memories, we also felt we needed to let go of the words “mobile” and “photo” in the event name. Why? As was the case in the early 2000s when having a website and internet strategy became common practice and companies, therefore, stopped calling themselves “internet companies,” we felt that “mobile” is…

Article 13 : What does it mean for photos ?

analytic, commercial stock, content, editing, Facebook, filter, flickr, getty, Instagram, news, photo sharing, photojournalism, Pinterest, research, Social Media, technology, UGC June 22, 2018 Paul Melcher 1 Comment

Just this past week, the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs approved amendments to EU’s Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. Among which is included the infamous Article 13 which ” creates an obligation on information society service providers storing and giving access to large amounts of works and other subject-matter uploaded by their users to take appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure the functioning of agreements concluded with rightsholders and to prevent the availability on their services of content identified by rightsholders in cooperation with the…

Announcing The 2018 Photo Print Buying Survey study

analytic, big data, content, editing, mobile, Mobile Photo Connect, photo merchandise, research, Social Media, study, transaction June 8, 2018 Hans Hartman 1 Comment

The photo print products use case: A relic of the past? Or teeming with new opportunities? It’s been four years since we conducted our last photo print product survey. Given how dramatically the world of photo taking, enhancing and sharing has changed since, we decided to measure today’s consumers’ behavior and opinions regarding buying photo print products, resulting in The 2018 Photo Print Buying Survey study, announced today. What are the dramatic changes that could very well have changed consumers’ photo print product buying behavior? Not only are consumers taking…

What you missed at the 2018 LDV Vision Summit

analytic, AR, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented reality, computer vision, Content Recognition, Facial recognition, imaging, Interface, LDV Summit, PhotoTech, technology, visual recognition, VR June 4, 2018 Paul Melcher 1 Comment

Every year one enters the hallway of the SVA Theatre in the heart of New York thinking that there is no way the organizers of the LDV Vision Summit can outperform the previous year. And every year you step out two days later, happily disappointed that your prediction was wrong. The combination of the organizing team’s ( Evan Nisselson, Serge Belongie, and Rebecca Paoletti) talent to surface captivating speakers and the topic ( visual tech) seemingly boundless reach into almost every vertical, makes this event…

LDV Vision Summit ’18: 10 questions to an AR research scientist : Facebook

AR, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented reality, computer vision, content, Content Recognition, Facebook, in-image, interview, LDV Summit, mobile, research, Social Media, technology, visual recognition May 8, 2018 Paul Melcher Leave a comment

With the fifth edition of the LDV Vision summit right around the corner ( May 23-24, discount tickets available on the right =>), we approached some of the speakers to get a hint of what they are working on and what they will be speaking about. First of the series is Krishnan Ramnath, Research Science Manager and Technical Lead Mobile at Facebook whose work for the social media platform is pioneering how most humans will experience AR in the years to come: – A little about…

Flickr / Smugmug: The frog that ate the bull

advertising, content, editing, flickr, google, Instagram, mobile, photo organizing, photo sharing, PhotoTech, prosumer, Social Media, transaction April 23, 2018 Paul Melcher 1 Comment

Flickr’s acquisition by Smugmug, if anything, has reminded us that the grandfather of photo sharing site is not dead. Yet. Almost hidden in the weekend lull, the news surprised almost everyone paying attention to this space: It’s been a long while since Flickr grabbed the headlines. But beyond the unconventional lack of details, what does this acquisition forecast? Let’s look at the available numbers. Smugmug and Flickr, while sharing photos as a common denominator, have not much in common. With 90 million monthly users, Flickr is 18 times bigger…