Mazel Tov iStockphoto

iStockphoto announced today that it has been acquired by Getty Images. This is just super cool news. I LOVE iStockphoto. Most of my blog entries has an iStockphoto photo in it--unless I took a picture of a laptop. :-)

Did you ever wonder how I get a picture of a man sitting on a toilet? Or a woman standing up and peeing? Or a gorilla whacking his head? Or a bottle of champagne? iStockphoto, baby. I write my entry and at the very end, I go to iStockphoto, find a picture, and add it to the entry.

Comments

[Mike Sax]

I just signed up for StockPhoto. Much to my surprise the "Where did you hear about us?", in addition to "Google", "a Friend", and so on, contained an option for "Guy Kawasaki". First time ever I've seen a single person listed like that in a sign up form.

[Patrick Lor]

This is absolutely the best thing that could have happened for the community. Getty Images is number 1 in the image space. They're committed to maintaining the culture and community at iStockphoto. In fact, we're working together to make it better.

Patrick Lor
EVP, iStockphoto.com

(Nick - BTW: we abhore spam. So, if you had your preferences to receive emails from us, you would have seen something from us)

[Jeremiah]

I fail to see how this is *good* news since large corporate buyouts rarely result in better customer and/or user experience.

Large image stock houses in particular have horrible reputations for outlandish business tactics. Including, but not limited to: striking exclusive digital rights to famous paintings, buying dozens of small stock houses to the point where only 3 major companies exist, and lobbying for the DMCA instead of adjusting to the internet era.

[Berislav Lopac]

Another great place is Stock.XCHNG, at www.sxc.hu, where you can find great free photos of all kinds.

[Grant Henninger]

How many more people are going to click on the "woman standing up peeing" link than the "man sitting on a toilet" link? Do you have any way to track which links get clicked on?

[Nick Davis]

Hmm, as a contributor and user of iStockPhoto I am heartbroken by this announcement. I can only imagine that prices will skyrocket; what else could Getty possibly have planned? I guess most of the small businesses I work with will get back to using bad graphics.

Also, it would have been nice, since I have photos on iStockPhoto and $54 in my account, to get an announcement about this development.

I'm not sure how you see this as a positive development. Can you elaborate? Is this only because you are an "Advisor" to iStock, or do you have other insights into the deal?