Picscout Blog » Digital Media

PicScout Reaches Out to Students with ImageExchange

admin — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 23:53:25 +0000

Any design student will tell you that it’s hard enough to grasp the basic design concepts of perspective, contrast, and alignment, let alone try and create designs while working within the often-confusing world of image copyright laws. This week, PicScout is helping to demystify these regulations for students. We reached out to graphic design instructors at various academic institutions to provide PACA’s copyright commandments alongside our free ImageExchange add-on.

We’re pleased to help students identify what the regulations are regarding legitimate image use, and also provide them with a free tool that enables them to easily comply with many of the regulations. By downloading the free ImageExchange add-on, students who search for academic project inspiration using Google, Yahoo, or other web pages can now legitimately use images consisting of Creative Commons Non-Commercial, Rights Managed and Royalty Free licenses from agencies participating in ImageExchange.

In total, professors and teachers from more than 150 higher education institutions and 75 high schools with graphic design programs received a combination of personal calls and emails which provided this link (www.picscout.com/education.html) to obtain a print/email ready PDF for use with their students. This simple 1-page educational handout addresses many key areas of confusion for image users and provides a link to the PACA site for more educational resources.

So for students and teachers alike - If you use Google Images for inspiration, never fear! You can now license them by using ImageExchange. Find out everything you need to know here and help spread the word to your fellow students.

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ImageExchange Moves to Open Beta – Simplified User Experience Expands User Base

admin — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:12:54 +0000

No-registration required installation and owner identified images make image search simple

We all know the KISS principle. The general consensus is that this is good practice which one should aspire to deliver. While simplicity can’t be overrated, it can be overdone. Getting simple just right can be tricky, as even Albert Einstein cautions, “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.” So, how far can you take simple and still achieve the desired result? We think the PicScout icon is a model of simplicity for image buyers– one glance tells you an image can be licensed, and one click connects you to license and use. Simple actions, but with extraordinary results! …and we will continue to make simple better and better with the help of our users.

PicScout has been beta testing ImageExchange since October 2009. We’ve watched how our closed beta users install it; we’ve asked for their feedback to refine and improve the tool; and we know when, how and why it’s used. Our beta users provide the insights needed to continually improve ImageExchange to make it an even more elegant, yet simple, tool for image users of any and all types. We have learned much in our quest to provide robust simplicity, and we want to learn even more about image user engagement and gain more insight from more users to understand all that motivates them at the point of the image experience. We encourage everyone to install the free ImageExchange tool now to experience images in a new way and participate in this landmark internet movement that facilitates image use by presenting ownership with every image.

New users join current beta users in resounding enthusiasm for ImageExchange:

Moving to Open Beta of ImageExchange means we’re opening ImageExchange to a wider audience and enlarging our scope of ImageExchange use and users to sharpen our insight. Now, many new image users can experience a new simplicity and freedom in their work, the kind of satisfaction that early beta users continue to express in their feedback to PicScout. Those who install ImageExchange browser add-on will be able to see tens of millions of every type of image—RM, RF, MS, and UCG—identified with an icon and ready for licensing and immediate use!

Help us celebrate this by sharing the good news. Invite your friends and colleagues to install the free ImageExchange. Registration for the add-on is no longer required – users can simply download the ImageExchange add-on directly for use with their FireFox browser.

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PicScout at the Digital Innovation Summit in Berlin March 2009

admin — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:49:22 +0000

I just came back from the Digital Innovation Summit in Berlin organized by VDZ where PicScout was invited to speak about its leading image tracking service as part of the Search and Content Session .

VDZ is a German organization of 400 publishers together producing more than 3,000 titles. The Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute also sponsored the event and helped scout out innovative Israeli companies in the digital media and software space.

The summit hosted young and innovative companies from Israel and USA among of them were companies like Kaltura, Clicktale, Tvinchi, Dapper and PicScout which showecased their company and solutions for the digital media market.

I was amazed to see how the traditional print industry is seeking for help and innovation in order to leverage their brand into the digital world. We were sharing how their evolution to online from print was similar to the evolution stock agencies had moving from 35mm to e-commerce websites.

Next month I will speak at the American Bar Association’s Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference which will discuss how emerging technologies, like the PicScout’s ImageTracker, can solve problems relating to “orphan works”.

Offir Gutelzon

(Picture from Raphael Mizrahi’s Facebook Album)

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