IMGembed is a new service designed to help photographers with attribution, tracking and monetizing the online usage of their images. Launched in beta at last years SXSW to an overwhelming response, today IMGembed is rolling out their official version 1.0! Could this be the future of ethical online image use?
Redesigned for scaling and performance
Having launched its beta version one year ago, IMGembed has achieved rapid adoption within the photo and blogging communities, from photo-enthusiasts, professional photographers and image libraries, to personal bloggers and large publishers. “We set out to revolutionize the way images are used online, and built a system to reflect the habits of image use by web publishers while addressing the needs of image owners”, said Alex Goh, CEO and founder of IMGembed. “Since our launch, we experienced tremendous growth and participation on the platform, and as we listen to our users it became evident that we needed to focus not only on the scaling of the platform but also in delivering features that our community demands.”
New brand identity for ethical image use, sharper embed appearance
IMGembed’s refreshed brand identity is a functional update that provides an aesthetic boost to its exponentially growing pool of visual content.
One of the key changes is the transition from the original square ‘IMG’ mark to a circular one. The circle, tested to be less visually intrusive across a variety of compositions, directly improves the watermark that is imprinted on the millions of ethical-use images that are available for use on IMGembed. Different variations of the watermark are also applied on the images based on intelligent image analysis, delivering the ideal level of contrast.
The newly-capitalized letters ‘I’, ‘M’, and ‘G’ bring emphasis to IMGembed’s advocacy on ethical use of imagery.
Appearance of embeds is also sharpened with a modern, versatile design to suit diverse styles of web publishing, while providing prominent attribution to the image owners.
Responsive user interface, improved search and new features
Aside from a fully responsive user interface that resizes seamlessly from desktops to mobile devices, the search experience has also been re-architected for efficiency, accuracy and display. The new thumbnail display grid showcases images of various aspect ratios in full without cropping.
Another innovative feature is the fallback option that lets bloggers and publishers preset keywords to continue serving closest-match alternatives for free-use images disabled by owners. Images are now also available in larger dimensions –– up to 2000 pixels in width for premium CPM use, and 900px for free use.
“Our new site has been a continual work in progress”, continued Alex. “We addressed many improvements architecturally a few months ago which allowed for improved platform strength and delivery, so now we are focused on what our community and new users see. Updating our logo and branding helps our overall look and feel, but we’re more excited about the features we’ll be adding to IMGembed over the next few weeks. This is just the beginning for us.”
About IMGembed
IMGembed is a pioneer in image embedding technology. Launched in 2013 and with offices in NYC and Singapore, IMGembed has generated millions of impressions for its users across the web. IMGembed promotes the ethical use of imagery online through its unique approach in image attribution, tracking, and CPM monetization.
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