- TinEye commercial accounts… the really-super-easy way
A while back we introduced a commercial version of TinEye: a paid search alternative for professional, commercial or high-volume users. While the free version of TinEye only allows you to do a limited number of searches per day and is for non commercial use only, the commercial version of TinEye allows you to purchase as many searches as you like–for commercial or non-commercial use.
We initially launched the commercial version of TinEye as an API only, but what a lot of people don’t know is that we now also provide a user-friendly interface for commercial accounts, over at our commercial website.
This means that you can create a commercial TinEye account and use it to search for images in the same way that you are used to doing at tineye.com. Upload an image, or cut and paste a URL. There is even a separate browser plugin for commercial accounts so that you can right-click on any web image to search for it.
So let’s get started! Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to get you or your company set up with a TinEye commercial account and start searching… the easy way.
1.
Go to the TinEye commercial website. This is different than the regular TinEye website, and all of the commercial stuff is done here, including searching and checking your account.
2.
Click the Sign up tab to sign up for a commercial account. Fill in all of your details, and if you are using TinEye commercially, don’t forget to provide the URL for your company website. You will receive an email verification as soon as you’re done.
3.
Check your email for a message from TinEye and click the verification link! You will be asked to log in with the email and password that you just used to sign up.
4.
Once you’re logged in, you’ll find yourself on the Welcome page. Don’t click away yet! There’s some good-to-know stuff here to help get you started. You can get back to this page from wherever you are on the site by going to About > Welcome (but you need to be logged in!).
5.
Before you can start searching, you need to buy a search bundle (you need to be logged in to actually buy a search bundle, but you can see the pricing even if you’re not). Transactions are handled via PayPal; as soon as you’re done you’ll be directed back to your account summary page on our site, which will show what you just purchased.
6.
You’re all set! Click on the Search tab to get started. Then simply search the way you would normally do on tineye.com. Upload an image from your local drive to search for it, or point to a web image or web page by pasting the URL.
Bonus!
To make searching even easier, get the browser plugin for TinEye commercial accounts. It lets you right-click on any web image to search for it (currently available for the Firefox browser only). To install, go to the Search page and click on the image that says ‘Install the API plugin for Firefox’.
Note: The browser plugins for the regular version of TinEye found at tineye.com/plugin will not work with your TinEye API account. You must install the commercial version to perform searches that will work with your prepaid search bundle.
And that’s it folks, happy searching!
- TinEye now accepting image collection submissions
TinEye has just one goal in life: To connect images and information. Whether that means finding the original author of an image, finding out where an image has been used on the web, or finding out more information about an image in general, TinEye wants to help you find the information you’re looking for. And the bigger our database of images, the better!
We have been crawling the web relentlessly over the past several months. In October ‘09 we grew by 21.5 million images. In November we grew by 22.5 million images. In December we leaped up another 65 million images. And in January alone we’ve added 44 million images and the month is not over yet!
In addition to our regular web crawling, we have started adding entire specialized image collections. Last week we announced the addition of the iStockphoto and Photoshelter stock photo collections to TinEye. Why? Because we want to make it easy to attribute any stock image to its original author, and facilitate sales. And we plan to add new and different specialized image collections over the coming weeks and months. Maybe even yours?
So… calling all companies dealing with large image collections on the web! TinEye is officially accepting your image collection submissions. Here are some of the things we are looking for:
- Stock and editorial photography collections
- Art and illustration collections
- Product image indexes and catalogs
- Archival or historical image collections
- You tell us!
If you are an image provider or deal with large image collections as a part of your business–and if you want more people connecting with your images–then we want to hear from you! Preference will be given to collections containing over 1 million images, and to companies with an existing image management and delivery procedure.
To add your image collection to TinEye, please contact us. Help us connect your images to you!
- A groovy TinEye tutorial
Groove Dexter over at groovyPost wrote up a great tutorial on how to use TinEye. It covers finding larger versions of an image, using the ‘Compare Images’ feature to compare similar images, and finding out more information about the subject of an image. Check it out, you might learn something new!
- Join TinEye on Facebook
That’s right, TinEye has got a shiny new page on Facebook, and we want you to join us there. Get the latest news about TinEye, find out what other TinEyers are up to, or just join the conversation and fun in general!
New blog posts, release notes and tweets are all updated on our Facebook page, so you can get all our news in one convenient location. We’ll be answering your questions and posting our little hearts out with fun or interesting stuff. Keep an eye out for special contests and giveaways, too!
Visit our page today, and if you’ve already got a Facebook account don’t forget to become a fan of TinEye by clicking the ‘Become a Fan’ button at the top of the page. See you there!
- TinEye Firefox add-on
Thanks TinEye fans! Our TinEye Firefox add-on broke 500,000 downloads this week. We are excited!
- Photo authenticity in reporting
As TinEye scoops PEI news in the CBC reporting today I can’t help but think about the two blog posts that have been brewing in my head for a little while now:
- Authenticity of photographs in reporting (or editorial news) and
- Photo credits: and by photo credits I mean providing appropriate photo credits at all time.
So there will be soon a longer blog post about both, in the meantime enjoy the little gem that Peter Rukavina unearthed this morning! The photo credit should read iStockphoto and not CBC.
- All systems go for TinEye
We have dealt with our TinEye slow downs. And everything is back to normal. If you notice any slow downs, let us know. Happy searching.
- TinEye is slowing down
TinEye friends, TinEye is experiencing a bit of a slowdown today. We are looking into things and hope to figure out what’s going on and fix it before you guys experience any TinEye withdrawals.
- Nominate TinEye for a Crunchie!
The 2009 Crunchies co-hosted by GigaOM, VentureBeat and TechCrunch are almost here, and we need your votes to nominate TinEye for Best Internet Application and Best Technology Achievement. The Crunchies is a competition and awards show celebrating the best technological achievements of 2009, and we think TinEye our reverse image search engine is definitely amongst the best.Voting closes at midnight, PST, on Friday December 4th so please show your support now by clicking the Crunchie badges above, or on the TinEye website… and tell your TinEye-loving friends too!
- TinEye API
We are excited to officially launch our TinEye Commercial API.
Since we launched TinEye, your most requested feature has been an API. For the non developer community: an API is an ‘application programming interface‘. It is a tool that allows you to access and interface with an existing web-based service, and enables you to develop programs that interact with this service. Our API allows you to develop programs that utilize the TinEye search engine.
We have seen great interest for the TinEye API from the user-generated and photography communities, developers, our clients and TinEye users. The API can be used in so many ways:
- Websites with user-generated content can check all incoming images against the TinEye index
- Content owners can queue up image batches to be searched automatically or at regular intervals
- Mobile applications can search incoming photos to identify content
- And lots of other solutions from copyright compliance to profile verification to brand monitoring!
Just remember: The TinEye API allows you to interact with TinEye the same way you are currently doing it via the web. You send TinEye a search request via the API and it provides you with a list of results. Our new API website provides complete documentation for everything you need to know about implementing the API. It provides pricing and allows you to make purchases online. There is an FAQ and a brand new TinEye forum for questions.
A few words about what the API is not: It is not installable software. It does not have a user interface. It will not do anything on its own, automatically. It will not make you breakfast (even though it would really like to, trust us). A knowledge of programming is required to implement the API. If you are not technical, maybe bake a batch of bribe-cookies for your programmer friends or co-workers?
Get started with the TinEye API today!
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