New contributor page on Shutterstock - Beta

This "closed beta" test of new landing page packed full of new statistics, a new header and footer and a messaging center. I have been invited to participate in this beta I feel great about this page and new improvements.

Lets take a a quick look at what new.

Pros:
1. Latest Downloads with geographic location of image buyers.
2. Earning statistics
3. Current earning and number of downloads on a top of the page
4. Expandable Message Center below page header


Cons:
1. Page does not fit one screen in resolution 1600x1200
2. According to feedback survey we can see Acceptance Rate, I do not see it.
3. Smallest period for stats is 3 months, I wish to see monthly stats.
4. I wish for more statistics like Return per Download.

[caption id="attachment_769" align="aligncenter" width="214" caption="New Shutterstock Contributor Page"][/caption]

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Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 Beta launch

Microsoft will hold a gala in San Francisco on September 15th to celebrate "The Beauty of the Web", official launch of IE9 Beta.



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Google announces WebM open media format

At Google I/O conference: WebM, a new project that will attempt to offer a standard, open format for audio and video on the web.

WebM includes:

• VP8, a high-quality video codec we are releasing today under a BSD-style, royalty-free license


• Vorbis, an already open source and broadly implemented audio codec


• a container format based on a subset of the Matroska media container

[caption id="attachment_627" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="WebM Project"][/caption]

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ImageRights

ImageRights , an Internet-based services company, helps locate and identify image use on the internet. ImageRights provides a low-cost, easy to use solution designed to help protect the copyrights of photographers, image libraries and publishers. ImageRights is applying visual search and image recognition technology to discover the use of photographs and illustrations across the Internet, empowering rights holders to reduce illegal image use and ultimately recover fees for the unlicensed use of their works.

[caption id="attachment_567" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="ImageRights"][/caption]

How it works
1. Signup for an Account.
2. Upload your images to ImageRights database.
3. Web crawler scans the internet and comparing images collected against the images you upload to database.
4. ImageRights will post a new report every week, providing the URL and image for any matches we find that are potential copyright violations.

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Google Maps now offers biking directions!

As an every day commuter I am really happy to see this happening. The bike directions take a lot of factors into consideration:
designated bike lanes, tries to avoid areas with lots of hill climbs and drops, busy roads and intersections. In giving estimates on trip times, Google uses an average person at an average Body Mass Index level, peddling up and down the terrain. Let's take a look at my usual morning route. I checked it with GPS logger and it is 9 miles which takes me about 35 minutes. According to Google Maps it is 11.6 mi and takes 1 hour. This feature is still in beta so I hope they will make some improvements :-)

[caption id="attachment_549" align="alignnone" caption="Bicycle directions on Google Maps"][/caption]

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Picnik Acquired by Google

Popular web-based photo editing service Picnik was acquired by Google. Picnik does a great job of cropping and touching up photos, and it comes with a lot of fun effects. It looks like nothing changes today. They will keep supporting existing partners, including Flickr and Facebook. I just wonder how they going to merge it with with Picasa?

[caption id="attachment_535" align="alignnone" caption="picnik.com"][/caption]

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