twsimpson

Chiming in here to add another voice for the need for featured images in this plugin’s functionality. Full disclosure, I made this request to Getty years ago via direct support/suggestion, I’m surprised the wisdom of this change has not been absorbed by the team at Getty yet.

You’re doing a massive disservice to your photographers by not making this possible. You’re also contributing the overwhelming insult to the culture more broadly that is comprised of the paralyzing proliferation of content pollution – helping to celebrate bad content produced by amateurs at the expense of professionals image makers.

Granted, many (most) of the publishers who would like to use your images in their websites are equally responsible for this problem, but imagine if they had high quality assets to share with their fledgling efforts? At the very least, the imagery the world is consuming would be produced by people who know what they’re doing, and all of us would benefit from that.

To take this critique to its greatest extent, many of the world’s most pressing problems arguably stem from the fact that professional purveyors of public discourse have been diminished by the ease of access to content production. Karl Marx be damned, the means of production is ubiquitous! Sadly, talent and skill (and access) is not.

Getty has an opportunity (responsibility?) to enable more democratic access to high quality cultural artifacts produced by the greatest talent in the world – that is the ethical purpose of your service. This small change could exponentially amplify the reach of your talent, improve the culture for all consumers of information, and (the no-brainer) could maximize your bottom line results! Few better examples of win-win in the business of technology and culture exist! How is this not a high priority for you guys?

How does it improve your bottom line, you wonder? Not by seducing small-time publishers to become customers (99% won’t) but by increasing the number of impressions received by the brand. There is a well established principle in psychology known as the “mere exposure effect.” Google it.

How many millions of additional impressions of the Getty brand would be served by this? And we’re talking millions per day, if not per hour and minute!

Also, think of digital sampling in music – when an artists uses a sampled song in a pop hit, sales for the sampled song itself increase!

Imagine, if your plugin was properly designed, not only would Getty get gazillions of impressions shared by millions of amateur publishers (at no cost to you, FFS), but the reader/consumer could click the image and be taken directly to a landing page where, with the click of a button, they could actually purchase rights to the image, or if you were savvy about it, order a framed print!

Give me a break, Getty. Who runs the show over there? Why are your business leaders costing the company millions of dollars in additional revenue for what should cost no more than $20k of a skilled developers time and expertise?? This is a profit center in waiting!

You can take this bit of advice for free. For everyone else reading this thread, because we know Getty has their head buried too deep in the sand to make this innovation anytime soon, I offer you some advice as well. Find free high quality stock images at any of the following websites:

Stock Up: Best free stock photo websites in one place.
Pexels: Best free photos in one place.
All The Free Stock: Free stock images, icons, and videos.
Unsplash: Free (do whatever you want) high-resolution photos.
Splashbase: Search & discover free, hi res photos & videos.
Startup Stock Photos: Go. Make something.
Jay Mantri: Free pics. do anything (CC0). Make magic.
Moveast: This is a journey of a portuguese guy moving east.
Travel Coffee Book: Sharing beautiful travel moments.
Designers Pics: Free photographs for your personal & commercial use.
Death to the Stock Photo: Free photos sent to you every month.
Foodie’s Feed: Free food pictures in hi-res.
Mazwai: Free creative commons HD video clips & footages.
Jéshoots: New modern free photos.
Super Famous: Photos by Dutch interaction designer Folkert Gorter.
Picography: Free hi-resolution photos.
Pixabay: Free high quality images.
Magdeleine: A free high-resolution photo every day.
Snapographic: Free stock photos for personal & commercial use.
Little Visuals: 7 hi-res images in your inbox every 7 days.
Splitshire: Delicious free stock photos.
New Old Stock: Vintage photos from the public archives.
Picjumbo: Totally free photos.
Life of Pix: Free high-resolution photos.
Gratisography: Free high-resolution photos.
Getrefe: Free photos.
IM Free: A curated collection of free resources.
Cupcake: A photographer’s treat by Jonas Nilsson Lee.
The Pattern Library: Free patterns for your projects.
Public Domain Archive: New 100% free stock photos.
ISO Republic: High-quality, free photos for creatives.
Stokpic: Totally free photos.
Kaboompics: The best way to get free photos.
Function: Free photo packs.
MMT: Free stock photos by Jeffrey Betts.
Paul Jarvis: Free high-resolution photos.
Lock & Stock Photos: Free stock photos for you.
Raumrot: Free high-resolution picture.
Bucketlistly: A free creative common collection of travel photos.
Some more websites: Free Digital Photos | Morguefile | Public Domain Pictures | Stockvault | ImageFree | Rgbstock | Dreamstime | Free Images | Free Range Stock | Free Photos Bank.

List courtesy of TNW. Plenty of other free assets at the article, worth a visit to peruse.

So I just spoke to GoDaddy tech support and they are claiming that this is a non-issue created by WordPress. Any thoughts on this?

I just noticed this today as well. Has anyone drilled down what this is? Is it new or just new to me?