Editor’s note: This plugin is no longer available as the company was sold to LYCOS in 2011.
I’ve noticed I get more page view when I do a review of products instead of posting news stories. I will still post news items I find interesting but the blog will be doing more review items instead.
I have no clue how PicApp got my email address, it’s quite possible I signed up for an account and not realize it until now, but I finally got around to trying out the service. PicApp is a service that lets bloggers use professional photos from Getty Images, Corbis and a couple of other photo services that no one has ever heard of. And best of all, it’s free!
With the Superbowl big game between Arizona and Pittsburgh this Sunday, PicApp had a couple of photos from the Arizona Cardinals under the search term ‘superbowl’. The rest were the New York Giants victory parade from last year.
Not a wide selection, but it’s a start; considering they only have one major news wire service – Getty Images.
The plugin was easy to install. Simply download, upload into the plugin directory and activate. The PicApp search box is located under the text box where user write their blog posts. The plugin only works when writing from the WordPress dashboard, the plugin is not compatible for Live Writer or Zoundry. Users can insert code snippets from the PicApp website if they use WYSIWYG editors.
The purpose of PicApp is to let bloggers post photos from wire services to their blogs legally. Because this service is free and money has to be paid to photographers, PicApp has to put ads at the bottom of the photos, as you can see on the bottom of the example photo. Because of the ads at the bottom of the image, I won’t be using this service. I might try them again, depending on how intrusive the ads are. But don’t count on it being a genuine replacement from Google images.
I understand that they need to make money to pay for the distribution rights of photos but not having the option for a paid version kills the service for me. Hopefully a paid service will be launched in the future and if the service is cheap, I will sign up for it. Especially if the extra income from paid users can establish agreements with Associated Press and Reuters photos.
This is a great idea for PicApp to become a photo distribution service for bloggers. Unfortunately, the free service with ads at the bottom of the images would cheapen this blog that strives to be professional.