Early this morning PicApp announced a partnership with Automattic and integration with WordPress. More than 7.5 million publishers on WordPress’ hosted service will gain access to 20 million stock images from services like Getty, Corbis and Jupiter Images. The one caveat with these images is that there is advertising embedded in them. While the blogosphere continues to debate the depth of image content, the true significance of the announcement is rooted in the fact that a new era of collaboration is upon us.
In the past, photography sites have looked to PicApp’s Israeli parent company PicScout to monitor the web for copyright infringements. Once infringers were identified, rights owners would serve DMCA takedown notices to bloggers and small publishers. Today’s partnership with one of the world’s top blogging platform casts aside this adversarial approach and gives bloggers the respect they deserve as legitimate publishers, influencers and even partners.
As covered by ReadWriteWeb in the past, PicApp has made efforts to differentiate itself from its parent copyright monitoring company. The company continues to collaborate with bloggers through its image sharing platform in exchange for links back to photography sites and advertisements. Since 2007, the company has signed a slew of new publishers and significantly increased its content. While some bloggers may grumble that the advertising is unsightly, there’s no denying that these simple embed codes shave precious minutes off a post. PicApp offers great quality photographs and automatic attribution and legal clearance. For professional bloggers this service can be a lifesaver for breaking news.
