Wildlife photo news from LichtenHansen

Is MSC fish sustainable?

2011-06-07T05:12:00.000-07:00

Is MSC labeled fish sustainable?

I think not. I will never buy MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) labeled fish as long as they certify fish caught in trawl.

Please read the following articles and judge by yourself.

Quote from Analysis MSC - The Costs of Certification

It is ironic that while small-scale fisheries, particularly those that employ selective, nontrawl fishing gear and practices in multi-species, tropical fisheries, hardly benefit from MSC certification, several industrial trawl fisheries in the temperate and polar waters have been certified to MSC as sustainable, thus challenging the common perception of trawling as a highimpact, destructive fishing technique, and small-scale fishing as low-impact and sustainable.

Quote from Richard Holland, the chief executive of WWF Netherlands:

The practice of bottom trawling can cause significant and irreversible harm to benthic ecosystems and species, raising questions about its environmental sustainability.

European Parliament published a briefing note: Long-term impact of different fishing methods on the ecosystem in the Kattegat and Öresund. The report concludes that due to the ban on towed fishing gear in place since 1932, the Öresund is now 100 times more productive for demersal fish stocks than the adjacent Kattegat, which has had no such regulations.

KEY FINDINGS
» It is natural to believe that the much better performance of the cod stock in the Öresund in particular is related to the absence of trawling.
» It is unlikely that the difference is caused by more severe environmental problems in the Kattegat, as the Öresund is enclosed by the most densely human-populated and cultivated area in Scandinavia.
» A prerequisite for these effects of the differences in technical regulations is the existence of separate, rather stationary fish stocks in the two areas.
» It is suggested that fisheries management of the Kattegat has been a fiasco, and the better management of the Öresund is just incidental.
» The findings presented in this briefing paper call for much more restrictive management actions.

The new FOUNDATION FOR EU BIODIVERSITY POLICY goal is:

Fisheries: Achieve Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY)22 by 2015. Achieve a population age and size distribution indicative of a healthy stock, through fisheries management with no significant adverse impacts on other stocks, species and ecosystems, in support of achieving Good Environmental Status by 2020, as required under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

Achieving a population age and size distribution indicative of a healthy stock is very difficult - if not impossible - with industrial trawl fisheries.
MSC have certified a lot of industrial trawl fisheries.

Is MSC sustainable? It is up to you to decide.

You can find more information on the the blog How sustainable are eco-certified fisheries?

All-black and all-white penguins - It is hard to be different

2010-08-26T03:21:00.000-07:00

It is hard to be different - either you end up on the front pages, or you will be bullied.

Black penguins

The black color is due to melanism that causes an overproduction of melanin, and the birds are wholly or partially black. All- black penguins are so rare that they end up on front pages when seen.

From gallery of King Penguins

All-black penguin.

I saw this all-black king penguin on South Georgia in 2008, but it is likely just a normal colored penguin after a bath in black mud.

For several years there were rumors of a black king penguin at Fortuna Bay on South Georgia Island.

In March 2010 a black king penguin spotted, photographed and filmed by Andrew Evans on South Georgia Island near Antarctica.

Photo by Andrew Evans from National Geographic.
See the video seen here: The rare black penguin

This penguin ends up on the front pages.

Albino - Leucism penguins

Albinos always have red eyes, and often they have very poor eye vision. Unusually they die very young.

Partial albinos or leucism which states are more viable. Leucism is a genetic defect that leads to lack of pigment melanin. Penguins with leucism are very rare, and only one out of approx. 200,000 penguins are suffering from this defect.

From gallery of Penguins in Antarctica

All-white (Leucistic) Chinstrap penguin.

I saw this Chinstrap penguin on Deception Island in Antarctica. The lack of melanin means that the feathers are almost completely white. The other Chinstrap penguins were very aggressive towards this white individual.

This penguin ends up on being bullied.

Forest floor with anemones in 3 colors - blue, yellow and white

2010-04-27T00:20:00.000-07:00

Anemones in 3 colors are covering the forest floor.

The forest just north of the Munkholm Bridge near Arnakke on Sealand in Denmark is probably the only place in Denmark where Liverwort (Hepatica nobilis), Wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa) and Yellow anemones (Anemone ranunculoides) grow right next to each other.

From gallery of Arnakke pictures

Forest floor with blue, yellow and white anemones.

Normally the blue Liverwort flowers first, then the white Wood anemone and - just when the blue Liverwort finish flowering - the Yellow anemone begin to flower. Spring 2010 was unusual - the blue Liverwort started flowering a little later than usual, and now all three colors anemones can be seen side by side in flower.

Old trees and ideal forest floor

There are many old trees in the forest and wind from Isefjorden ensures that most of the dead leaves near the water is blown away from the forest floor. It provides good growing conditions for all three anemone species.

From gallery of Arnakke photos

It is only here - right down to the fjord - that the three species grow side by side.

Forest walk

The forest is lovely place for a short walk. There are old trees, steep slopes, lots of birds and wildlife, and a fabulous view over the southern part of Isefjorden. The walk could appropriately conclude by enjoying a soft ice near the parking lot at the Munkholm Bridge.

Spring in Denmark is great.

Links to Wikipedia:
Liverwort (Hepatica nobilis) (Kidneywort, Pennywort or Common Hepatica)
Wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa)
Yellow anemone (Anemone ranunculoides)

expo-MAX Real Analytics vs. Google Analytics and Statcounter

2010-02-19T08:04:00.000-08:00

Free website statistics. expo-MAX Real Analytics vs. Google Analytics and Statcounter - an alternative or supplement? Here is my review.

Combine the best from Google Analytics and Statcounter and then add some more

expo-MAX Real Analytics (go to Analytics tab) is a new service that combine the best from Google Analytics and Statcounter and then add some extra features.

Update 2010-10-12: Google Webmaster Tools now provide much more detailed information about image search and keywords. Expo-MAX Real Analytics also give you a lot of no-value back links from their search engine. I can no longer recommend Expo-MAX Real Analytics.

Image Search analytics out of the box

It is more than difficult to get image search statistics from Statcounter and Google Analytics. In expo-MAX Real Analytics it is built-in.

expo-MAX Real Analytics: Why is it free?

Quote from expo-MAX

We believe that by providing a top notch and innovative statistical tool, it will build us excellent reputation in the industry and boost user confidence to engage in some of our other programs (Advertising & Publishing).

I have installed it on my Smugmug-site Lichtenhansen nature photos. It is very easy to use - and very fast too.

Take a look at these screenshots and specifically the far right column:
Screenshot1: Position of your site in a specific search engine for all keywords:
Screenshot2: Position of your site for a specific keyword in all search engines

More details

The description on their homepage is very accurate, so I'll just quote at few paragraphs.
Quote from expo-MAX

Search Engine Traffic and Search Engine Ranking Reports
expo-MAX Real Analytics is in the class of its own when it comes to search engine traffic and ranking analysis. It has an out-of-the-box support for all search engines, including specialty search engines, such as Google Images or Yahoo! Local Search among others. Unique feature of Real Analytics is that besides generating regular web traffic and keyword reports, it also pin points the rankings of your website in every single search engine for every single keyword as your visitors see them in their browsers, a feature that is guaranteed to save you hours upon hours you would have spent researching otherwise. You can view your site's ranking as an aggregate, grouped by keyword or by search engine, as well as ranking of your site as recorded in the individual visits.

expo-MAX Real Analytics allows you to generate both aggregate reports as well as detailed. Aggregate search engine reports group accumulated data by major search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.). On the other hand detailed search engine reports present you with a more refined breakdown, futher processing statistics between the various flavors of search engines (e.g. google.com, google.co.uk, google.ca, etc.)

Real Time Tracking of Website Visitors
expo-MAX Real Analytics is designed to provide you with real-time reports that are generated automatically as the traffic data is gathered and processed. From the second Real Analytics is set up you begin to see your website's traffic reports immediately across all parameters.

How to get expo-MAX Real Analytics?

Homepage for expo-MAX (go to Analytics tab)
All you have to do is to sign up - copy the code and paste it into the bottom of your page just before the closing page tag - the same place as you put your code from Statcounter and Google Analytics. There is an excellent and illustrative guide on their homepage.

Conclusion - my preferred free website statistics tool

To me expo-MAX Real Analytics is not an alternative to Google Analytics and Statcounter - It's my preferred free website statistics tool. I will keep both Google Analytics and Statcounter as supplemental tools (They do provide some very useful and unique features).

Update 2010-10-12: Google Webmaster Tools now provide much more detailed information about image search and keywords. Expo-MAX Real Analytics also give you a lot of no-value back links from their search engine. I can no longer recommend Expo-MAX Real Analytics.

Allan Hansen - Webmaster and Photographer at www.photosension.dk

Black-browed albatross. Photos from Falkland Islands

2010-02-03T16:33:00.000-08:00

Black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophrys) is a large seabird - the most common of all albatrosses. It is the classified as Endangered on the IUCN list due to a drastic reduction in the population.

Most af the Black-browed albatrosses breed on Steeple Jason Island in the Falkland Islands:
From gallery of Albatross pictures

Black-browed albatross colony on Steeple Jason Island

More than half of all Black-browed albatrosses breed here. The colony counts more than 200.000 birds. It is an impressive sight and an awesome experience to be there.

The Black-browed albatross is an impressive bird with a wingspan of up to 2.4 meter.
From Photo gallery Albatross photo galley

Flying Black-browed albatross prepare to land

They have to use all the tricks in the book to land - feet out etc.

Black-browed albatrosses maid for life, and they use 4-5 years to find the right partner before they breed for the fist time at about 10 years of age.

From Albatross photos - an endangered seabird

Mating ritual of Black-browed albatross

Hopefully this pair will breed next year to help fighting the decreasing population.

Black-browed albatross chick is being fed

And hopefully their chick will be fed regularly and not be left alone too much.

Black-browed albatross chick in nest

Save the Albatross

If nothing is done then these elegant seabirds will be extinct in about 40-50 years. Illegal long line fishing and global warming have placed this species - as well as most other albatrosses - on the IUCN list of endangered species.
Lots of organizations are trying to save the albatross from extinction. Here are a few of them:
Birdlife - Save the albatross
Conservation Campaign Fights to Save Albatrosses
Forest and bird - Save the albatross

They all need your help to save the Albatrosses - The kings of the Southern Oceans.

Panoramio photos on Google Earth - Pictures from LichtenHansen

2010-01-04T07:49:00.000-08:00

In the last 4 month I have added another 20 photos to Googles Earth from my Panoramio profile: Nature photos on Google Earth by LichtenHansen

The pictures are mainly from Denmark and Antarctica.

Munkholmbroen

Isklædte sten i Isefjorden

Tempelkrogen dækket af is

Commerson's dophin leap

Humpback whale blow

Midnight moonlight in Antarctica

Flying into the sunset

Shackleton's grave

Polar Star at anchor

Kato Lefkos, Karpathos

King penguins

Fighting elephant seals

Midnight river mist

Beach with penguins

Neumayer Channel

Hannah Point

Penguin beach

Ross Glacier at St Andrews Bay

Global warming was a hot issue in Denmark last year (COP15) - Now it is a new year and I fear that it is all forgotten - concerns about the economy have taken over and the climate issues have dropped low on the priority list. Ross Glacier is likely to disappear.

New year firework - Funchal, Madeira - Just fantastic

2009-12-31T11:09:00.000-08:00

New year in Funchal, Madeira.

The edge of Madeira New Year's celebrations is the fantastic fireworks show in Funchal amphitheatre.

New year fireworks. Funchal, Madeira

Funchal’s amphitheatre is transformed into a magnificent crib illuminated by more than 250.000 coloured lights .... while the hillsides are dotted with white lights, setting the scene for an unforgettable display.

Funchal, Madeira celebrates New year

When the clock strikes twelve on 31st of December, the skies are lit up with fire, colour and hope for the New Year .... which could not get off to a better start.

Funchal, Madeira celebrates New year

Happy new year 2010 to everyone.

Smugmug and Search engine optimization (SEO) - I give up

2009-12-04T12:41:00.000-08:00

Google do have a lot of help pages for webmasters. Here is the one for images: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=114016

Give your images detailed, informative filenames

The filename can give Google clues about the subject matter of the image. Try to make your filename a good description of the subject matter of the image. For example, my-new-black-kitten.jpg is a lot more informative than IMG00023.JPG. Descriptive filenames can also be useful to users: If we're unable to find suitable text in the page on which we found the image, we'll use the filename as the image's snippet in our search results.

Before Smugmug made the changes with filenames the filenames looked like this: 24815903-1qRs4-L-1.jpg.

After the "We have made it so filenames get seen and indexed by Google" the filenames looks like this: 24815903-1qRs4-L-1.jpg.

No change at all to filenames.

I can not see anywhere on http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/ that foldernames will help image search.

I will suggest Smugmug to reopen the "allow images to be found in google image search" and make it right this time.

Just changing the filenames not going to help much: On the same page they also suggest:

Create great alt text
Anchor text
Create a great user experience
standalone landing page for each image
putting your images high up on the page
structuring your directories so that similar images are saved together

And most importantly Follow Goggle's usual webmaster guidelines.

(The usual stuff: Sitemap, Quality content, avoid duplicate content and much more - most of which Smugmug is not following)

Some Smugmug users have named their images right for years - It doesn't help at all. (like some of the fotographers with photos on the all-time most popular Smugmug photos)

Personally I don't care about this anymore - I have already given up. I an just frustrated on behalf of all Smugmug users that are frustrated of the poor Smugmug SEO performance. This thread could take years and be as long as "How To Maximize Your Findability" without going nowhere.

Smugmug need to change their attitude to recommendations from Google.

I doubt they will.

Once I was dedicated Smugmug fan - not any more.

Photo hosting sites - Search visits - SEO compared

2009-11-09T08:21:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for a search engine friendly photo hosting site yiu might have a look at the statistics from alexa.com. Alexa computes traffic statistics from a lot of sources and are regarded as a great source for information by many webmasters. See more at About the Alexa Traffic Rankings.

You do have to be careful when evaluating statistics. Here is an example: (both sites claim to be SEO friendly)
Seach visits (percent) - Zenfolio vs. Smugmug

Source Alexa.com

Traffic from search engines to Zenfolio is pretty low, but is increasing.

Traffic from search engines to Smugmug is a bit higher. In june the percentages doubled, but has since dropped a bit.

Now if we add a few more sites; Panoramio, Flickr and photobucket.com.

Source Alexa.com

Interesting that sites like Panoramio and Photobucket both gets about 40% of their visits from search engines. The ever popular Flickr gets about 28 %.
Zenfolio and Smugmug are both far behind and you have to pay to get an account.

Alexa's site information is a great place for information .
Here are the Alexa information links for the above 5 photo hosting sites:
Zenfolio stats on Alexa
Smugmug stats on Alexa
Flickr stats on Alexa
Panoramio stats on Alexa
Photobucket stats on Alexa

Check out your favorite photo hosting site on Alexa and compare it with other sites.

I'm still looking for SEO friendly photo hosting site.
Please tell me if you know a good looking professional site like Smugmug and Zenfolio, and the SEO performance of Panoramio and PhotoBucket.

- Arnakke photo by LichtenHansen -

Parameter handling in Google webmaster tools - Suggestions to my Smugmug site

2009-09-29T04:05:00.001-07:00

Parameter handling now in Google webmaster tools

It can be found under "Site configuration" - "Settings"

This new Parameter handling filter shows the importance Google places on duplicate content and the problems many websites face with regards to displaying the duplicate content accessible via different URLs.

Parameter suggestions on my Smugmug site.

Smugmug is my photo hosting site and it looks like Smugmug has a big problem with duplicate content.
This is what Google webmaster tools is saying about my Smugmug site:

Googlebot has crawled your site and made a few parameter suggestions.

ImageKey Suggested: Ignore (This parameter is a duplicate or contains invalid characters.)
ImageID Suggested: Ignore (This parameter is a duplicate or contains invalid characters.)
Page Suggested: Ignore (This parameter is a duplicate or contains invalid characters.)

+ Add parameter - Found parameters:
Type
Data
format
AlbumID
AlbumKey
Size
orient
rand
KeywordID
start
num
PageCount
firstLetter
NickName
CategoryID
how
Popular
height
Timeline
randomBits
width
settings
Year

Parameter handling explained

Google's Learn More say about Parameter Handling:

Dynamic parameters (for example, session IDs, source, or language) in your URLs can result in many different URLs all pointing to essentially the same content. For example, http://www.example.com/dresses?sid=12395923 might point to the same content as http://www.example.com/dresses. You can specify whether you want Google to ignore up to 15 specific parameters in your URL. This can result in more efficient crawling and fewer duplicate URLs, while helping to ensure that the information you need is preserved. (Note: While Google takes suggestions into account, we don't guarantee that we'll follow them in every case.)

I count 26 parameter suggestions from Google and I can only specify 15.

What Smugmug should do.

In a perfect world, Smugmug would take care of these duplicate pages by using any combination of the traditional methods:

•301 redirect
•Meta Canonical tags
•Meta Robots tags
•Robots.txt

And no sitemap either.

I hope that Smugmug one day will implement most or all recommendations from Google and other search engines.

How to avoid frustration.

Until then – do not install Google Webmaster tools on your Smugmug site and do not read Google’s other webmaster recommendations – You will only get very frustrated.

The very best solution might be to avoid using Smugmug as your photo hosting site..

Photos from Nepal - Kanchenjunga base camp trek

2009-09-21T02:37:00.000-07:00

Photos from Nepal - Kanchenjunga (Kangchenjunga) base camp trek.

Kanchenjunga (8.586 meters or 28.169 feet) is the third-highest peak in the world and the second-highest in Nepal.
The route to the north base camp usually starts in flying in to Suketar and then trekking onwards to Phurumbu, Chirwa, Taplechok, Sakathum, Amjillassa ,Ghunsa, Khambachen, Lonak and Pangpema.
An alternative route from Sakathum to Ghunsa is via Magawa , Olanchungola , Nango Khola valley and the Nango La high pass at 4820 meter (15.813 ft).
Here are the first pictures uploaded to Google Earth from this alternative route.

Olanchungola (Walungchung Gola).

Player flags decorate the view from Olanchungola (Walungchung Gola) village in Nepal
Photo by Allan Hansen.
Olanchungola (Walungchung Gola) is a tiny Tibetan foothold.

Olanchungola (Walungchung Gola) village, Nepal
Photo by Allan Hansen.

Nango Kola landscape.

Snowcovered Nango Kola valley, Nepal
Photo by Allan Hansen.

Landscape near Ghunsa.

The autumn colors in the mountains make walking the Kanchenjunga track in Nepal to a fantastic experience.
Photo by Allan Hansen.

The rest of the photos are from the classic Kanchenjunga route.

Ghunsa village.

Prayer flags. House decoration in Ghunsa, Kangchenjunga, Nepal
Photo by Allan Hansen.

Near Lūnak (Lhonak).

Yak in the mountaineous landscape near Lūnak (Lhonak) in eastern Nepal.
Photo by Allan Hansen.

Near Kanchenjunga base camp.

Mountain between Lūnak and Kangchenjunga, Nepal
Photo by Allan Hansen.

Kanchenjunga base camp trek photo map.

See map on Google Maps

Links:
Nepal pictures on Google Earth by Allan Hansen.

Hannah Point at South Shetland Islands in Antarctica

2009-09-13T02:50:00.000-07:00

Hannah Point on Livingston Island in South Shetland Islands is a small but very interesting landing site in visitors going to Antarctica.

Hannah Point landscape with Gentoo penguins.

Gentoo penguins in a beautiful landscape.
Photo by Allan Hansen.

Hannah Point is home to an interesting mix of Penguins. There are lots of Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins and a few Macaroni and Adelie penguins.

Quote from Wikipedia:

Hannah Point is a point on the south coast of Livingston Island in the Antarctic. It forms the eastern side of Walker Bay.
The geological feature was named for Hannah of Liverpool, a ship that had wrecked at this area in 1820 while traveling through the South Shetland Islands.
Among the birds that make their home here are the Gentoo and Macaroni Penguins as well as Kelp Gulls. Southern Giant Petrels nest here as do Blue-Eyed Shags, Skuas, and Snowy Sheathbills. Southern elephant seals and Antarctic fur seals are among the larger life forms observed at the point

Hannah Point was our last stop in Antarctica before heading back across the Drake Strait to South America with our ship Polar Star.
At sunset we had to return to our ship. A perfect end to a fantastic journey.

Hannah Point sunset.

Sunset at Hannah Point on South Shetland Islands, Antarctica.
Photo by Allan Hansen.

Both pictures are uploaded to Unusual landscape photos by Allan Hansen. They are also entered in the September 2009 Geotagged Photo contest in Panoramio in category "Unusual Unusual Location".

-

Antarctica travel route on Google Maps

2009-09-08T09:17:00.000-07:00

I have published the first Google Map from my trips to Antarctica. Both tours started in Ushuaia in Argentina, then to Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island, South Orkney Islands, Antarctic peninsula and back to Ushuaia.
This first Google Map shows the whole route and a photo from each place.

View Antarctica cruise route with Cheesemans in a larger map

The next maps will show the different places in greater details and with pictures from each landing site. All pictures are from my Google Earth photos published on Panaramio photos by LichtenHansen.
I expect to publish a lot of Google Maps with a lot of photos from all over the world with.

Arnakke Photo galleries on Smugmug

2009-08-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

Smugmug has changed the URL structure and introduced plain-english URL's (They call it NiceNames). Here is the new plain-english links to most galleries on Photo Arnakke.
The links are changed in my horizontal navigation bar which is based on the idea found on Free CSS Drop-Down Menu Framework. I can highly recommend this solution for a horizontal drop-down menu in Smugmug.

New photos - Latest uploaded pictures
King penguin photo gallery from South Georgia Island.
Gentoo penguin photo gallery
Braying ritual of Adelie penguin in Antarctica. 17 photos
Penguin photo gallery from Antarctica and Subantarctic islands.
Albatrosses in South Georgia Island and Falkland Islands
Birds: Tierra del Fuego, Falkland, South Georgia, Antarctica
Unusual landscape photos
Madeira highlight and landscape photo gallery
Nepal landscape and people
Photos from Denmark, Danmark
Swedish Lapland
Photos from Scotland
Funny videos of wildlife
Marine mammals in Antarctica
Garden pond and flowers
Fishing - Big fish
South Georgia Island gallery with 6 King penguin photos
Penguin gallery. 6 pictures of Adelie, Gentoo and Macaroni penguins in Antarctica
Links
About Photo Arnakke - LichtenHansen - Allan Hansen
Guestbook for Photo Arnakke - LichtenHansen - Allan Hansen

Having the same pages on different URL's is a major avoid in Googles official webmaster starter guide. It creates duplicate pages, which is very bad SEO practice. Unfortunately I cannot do a "redirect" or anything else. It is all up to my Photo Hosting site. They do plan more SEO fixes in the near future. I'm trying to guide Google with these links.

I'm much more worried about the links already out on the internet: on Digg, blogs and all other places having links to my site. Will they be redirected to the new URL's? Time will tell.

Update 2010-10-12: Even more duplicate pages than ever on my Smugmug site: I give up. I'll no longer use Smugmug.

Photo Arnakke by LichtenHansen - Allan Hansen

Photo Arnakke – Lichtenhansen Photography change website title.

2009-08-30T04:10:00.000-07:00

Photo Arnakke - Landscape and wildlife from unusual places is the new title for my nature website. The name LichtenHansen was too hard to remember and hard to spell too. The website address remains the same:

Arnakke is the name of the small village in Denmark where I live.

There is also a Kap Arnakke in a very remote area of Eastern Greenland.

Most of my photos on Photo Arnakke - Landscape and wildlife from unusual places are from very remote places on earth like Antarctica, Falkland Islands, Lapland and the Canadian Northern Territory.
Most of my older photos are still only available as slides, but some of the best will eventually be scanned and published on Photo Arnakke - Landscape and wildlife from unusual places or Google Earth Photos by Allan Hansen and possibly other places as well.
The new Photo Arnakke Blog is up and running now.

Feel free to check my links and contact information on Allan Hansen's Profile

Update 2010-10-17: I do not want to hide my photos any more using Smugmug as a photo hosting site. You can find these photos on my own website: Images from unusual places.

Plain-English URL’s now in Smugmug – a SEO improvement?

2009-08-27T13:27:00.000-07:00

The first part of a major SEO (Search Engine Optimization) improvement was released the other day.

Gallery URL-paths are now in plain English. Instead of “/Gallery/1234567-xxxx” you can now control the URL path so it looks like this: “/sports/fishing/Alaska/1234567-xxxx”.

Yes, it is a great improvement for SEO.

Also a few bug-fixes were silently released – Smugmug no longer feed the BOT’s (Search Engine Robots) with “Hide owner” URL’s (like www.smugmug.com/gallery/1234567-xxxx) . Technically this created duplicate pages – same content on different URL’s – a major no-no according to Google. It was on pages like Smugmug search pages that this happened earlier, but now it is corrected.

Again – Great for SEO.

Also - Pages titles were changed – Those that earlier had followed Smugmug’s advise and had the same page title on all their pages do now have a much more unique page title.

Again - Great for SEO.

Do these 3 “Great for SEO” improvements help?
Is “Hide your photos in a Smugmug account” history?

Those that previously had the same page title on all their pages will most likely see a major increase in number of visits coming from Search Engines.
For the rest of us – time will tell.

Does it help Image Search?

Most likely not – These improvements were targeted galleries – not photos. Long way to go here.

More updates later when I know something about the effects of these changes.

I do have a Smugmug user account and I’m looking forward to the next SEO release from Smugmug. I hope for many more SEO improvements, especially regarding duplicate pages, more control of page titles and meta data, quality photo page content in general, a “Plain English” URL all the way to photo pages, and the ability to make a link to a photo page that doesn’t break when I make structural changes in my galleries and photos.

As a reference:
1% of my photos published on Smugmug con be found on Google Image Search.
50 % of my photos published on Panoramio and flick can be found on Google Image Search.

Good news - Smugmug SEO improvements releasing soon

2009-08-20T00:27:00.000-07:00

Search engine optimization (SEO) improvements soon to be implemented in Smugmug.

In Smugmug’s feature request forum some of the feature requests regarding SEO have changed status to “Started” and a few posts by Smugmug representatives on the Dgrin support forum have mentioned that some of the improvements are ready to be released and other improvements will be released not long after.

So, what changes can we expect? There is not lot information about this, but there are a few posts on Dgrin that may give an idea about what SEO changes we can expect:

Sitemaps (XML and maybe also HTML)
Unique page titles.
Meta data
Plain-English URL paths for galleries (I do hope for photo-pages as well)

Well, that is all I could find on Dgrin (There might be others).

Hopefully this will fix the many HTML suggestions mentioned in my Google Webmaster Tools.

I do hope for many more improvements – The list of official SEO-tips that Smugmug does not follow is long - very long (Compare it yourself. Read the document "Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide" found on Google's SEO Starter Guide page).

Also, I do hope that Smugmug from now on takes Search engine optimization (SEO) very serious and do stay on top of present and future SEO guidelines from major search engine companies like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

I especially expect a lot of changes to image search optimization guidelines and I hope that Smugmug will stay on top of these too.

Until now only about 1% of my photos on Smugmug can be found on Google Image Search.

At least 50% of my photos published on Panoramio and Flickr can be found on Google Image Search.

I hope for equal performance here.

Stay tuned - I will post updates on this issue.

Frog paradise. Garden pond with no fish.

2009-08-08T08:10:00.000-07:00

No fish is the key to turn your pond into a frog paradise. Frog and other amphibians like newt prefer to breed in water holes without any fish. Using chemicals to keep your water clear is another major no-no. Plant instead a lot of plants. Plants also give small animals and insects a place to hide and breed.

We have planted some water lilies witch absorbs lots of nutrients from the water and doesn't give the algae a chance grow excessively. They are also very attractive to the human eye.

Frog paradise. Green frog and red water lily. Larger size

Now - two years later - we have the following amphibians in the pond:
Common Newt (Lissotriton vulgaris)
Great Crested Newt (Triturus cristatus)
Green frog (Pelophylax esculentus)
Common Frog (Rana temporaria)

Insect life also benefit from a fish-free pond. You can expect to see a much greater variety of different kind of insects. Among the most colorful are of cause the dragonflies.

Close-up of Blue emperor dragonfly laying egg - Larger size
Photo taken in Arnakke, Vestsjælland (Denmark).

So don't stock your garden pond with fish. Give instead a helping hand to the amphibians and remove the fish.

A natural looking garden pond in ecological balance will also give you a lot of photo opportunities.
Se more photos in my gallery Photos of flowers and animals in a garden pond

Water Snake next to flowering Water Lily in our garden pond

2009-08-06T06:17:00.000-07:00

The Water snakes in our garden are usually very shy and seldom show themselves more that a few seconds, but the other day one of them swam around between the water lilies for a few minutes and I had time to get my Canon camera and a 300mm lens, and take a few photos before it disappeared again.
At the same time one the big egg laying dragonfly - background and reflections almost perfect. It was hard to choose the target for the photos - I knew that it would only last for a few second more, but I got a few photos. Here they are:

Snake in paradise.
Red Water lily and European Water Snake.
The Water Snake (Natrix natrix) is also called European Grass Snake or Ringed Snake. This reptile sometimes swim between the Water lilies (Nymphaeaceae) in our garden pond in Arnakke, Denmark.

Blue Emperor Dragonfly (Anax emperator) laying egg in a garden pond near Arnakke, Vestsjælland (Denmark).

Both photos are uploaded to Panoramio / Google Earth photos by Allan Hansen. They are not likely to be selected for Google Earth as they are not landscape photos, but I hope they can be found on Google image search.

More pictures of snakes, water lilies and dragonflies can be seen on my gallery Garden pond photos

Page titles - Smugmug versus Google SEO-recommendations

2009-08-04T15:53:00.000-07:00

Frustrated of the - in my opinion - very poor SEO (Search Engine Optimization) performance in Smugmug, I have posted this on Dgrin - Support forum for Smugmug:

Originally Posted by Andy
Be sure you fill out your page title section, Advanced Site-Wide Customizing. Page Title (optional)
The page title is crucial if you want to be found in Google search results.

It appears on the top bar of your browser window (such as on Internet Explorer) on all your SmugMug pages. A good example is "Moon River Photography -- Andy Williams".

I can quote from Google's Search Engine Optimization
Starter Guide found on the official Google's SEO Starter Guide page:
Create unique, accurate page titles
and
Create unique title tags for each page -
Each of your pages should ideally have a unique title tag, which helps Google know how the page is distinct from the others on your site.

Avoid:
• using a single title tag across all of your site's pages or a large group of pages.

In other words:
Smugmug recommend the same page title on all pages.
Google recommend a unique page title on each page.

Most – if not all (Except Smugmug) – SEO experts on the internet agree with Google.

In addition to page titles, Smugmug does not follow most of the recommendations in Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide.
Like duplicate pages, duplicate meta descriptions, user friendly URLs, sitemaps etc. The list is long - very long.

This adds up to:
1.Smugmug does NOT follow about 70-80% of the official SEO Starter guidelines from Google.
2.Lots of Smugmug users (except Andy) in this thread and many other threads are frustrated of not being found on Google and other search engines.

Is this a coincidence? I think not.

Is it really so hard to acknowledge that:
•Smugmug’s SEO implementation is very, very poor.
•Smugmug’s SEO implementation could easily be improved by just following the Starter guide and the tips from a lot of users on this forum (like Canonical URLs posted by xxclixxx ).

The first step to solve a problem is to acknowledge the problem.

I have already voted for SEO changes in Smugmug’s feature request forum, but I hope that Smugmug very soon will make a major change in its policy regarding SEO, and will stay on top of present and future SEO Guidelines (not just the basic ones mentioned in the Starter Guide, but also more advanced issues)
__________________
Allan Hansen

SM: About LichtenHansen / Allan Hansen - Unusual landscape and wildlife photos by LichtenHansen
Google Earth/Panoramio: Google Earth photos by lichtenhansen - Allan Hansen.
Google: Allan Hansen Google profile

As usual I don't expect any responses at all to my post. I just hope that - in the end - Smugmug has to do something about their - in my opinion - very bad SEO performance.

Update 2009-08-12.
I got a response this time: They are working on it - no info on timeline though.

Fortuna Bay - Reindeer and King penguin

2009-07-03T05:07:00.000-07:00

Fortuna Bay in South Georgia Island is a fantastic place. The surrounding landscape is stunning and the King penguin colony / rookery adds to the experience.

Wikipedia: Fortuna Bay is a bay 3 miles (4.8 km) long and 1 mile (1.6 km) wide, entered between Cape Best and Robertson Point on the north coast of South Georgia Island.

Fortuna Bay near Stromness, South Georgia Island.
Moulting King penguins around the small melt water streams.

Fortuna bay is also home to some of the reindeers (Rangifer tarandus) introduced to South Georgia Island by Norwegian whalers back in 1911 as a source of meat.

The population of about 2000 animals is a threat to the environment of South Georgia island and the reindeer may be eradicated in the near future.

Until then it is possible to see reindeers walk around among the King penguins.

King penguins and Reindeer at Fortuna Bay, South Georgia Island.

I hope one day to visit this fantastic place on a day with fine weather. I have been there twice on rainy days.

Both photos are uploaded to Unusual landscape photos by Allan Hansen and can probably be seen at Google Earth sometimes in August 2009.
They are also entered in the monthly Geotagged Photo Contest contest in Panoramio in category "Unusual Unusual Location".

Identical - similar image search - Google - TinEye

2009-07-02T03:49:00.000-07:00

New exiting technologies from Google and TinEye:

Similar Images from Google Labs.
Identical / reverse image search engine from TinEye.

The new service Similar Images from Google Labs: http://similar-images.googlelabs.com/

Refine your image search with visual similaritySimilar Images allows you to search for images using pictures rather than words. Click the "Similar images" link under an image to find other images that look like it. Try a search of your own or click on an example below.

I hope this technology will make image searches more effective in the future.

TinEye is a reverse image search engine: http://tineye.com/

TinEye is a reverse image search engine. You can submit an image to TinEye to find out where it came from, how it is being used, if modified versions of the image exist, or to find higher resolution versions. TinEye is the first image search engine on the web to use image identification technology rather than keywords, metadata or watermarks. For some real TinEye search examples, check out our Cool Searches page.

TinEye is still in Beta.
You can upload a photo or specify an URL. I have tried searching for a couple of my photos, but TinEye could not find any identical copies.
The technology behind TinEye is very interesting. Take a look yourself.

Panoramio unusual location contest - new photos

2009-06-25T00:41:00.000-07:00

New photos to the next Panoramio contest published on Unusual landscape photos by Allan Hansen. They all enter the Unusual Location category

1. Cuverville Island, Antarctica. The Gentoo penguin colony is worth a visit. The nearby Ronge Island with its glaciers makes a dramatic setting for this Antarctic visitor site.

This is one of my favorite spots in Antarctica

2. Brown Bluff on the Tabarin Peninsula in Antarctica. Adelie penguins entering the water.

Taken back in 2003. Unfortunate we did not go here in 2008 due to an accident on Paulet island and we had to rush to the Chilean base on South Shetland Island.

3. Salisbury Plain in the Bay of Isles, South Georgia Island. King penguin colony with over 200,000 birds.

Salisbury Plain is a fantastic place. The number of birds is staggering and the surrounding area is stunning.

Ane Holsaae graduated at the Glasgow School of Art

2009-06-22T02:39:00.000-07:00

Ane Holsaae just graduated as BA(Hons) Fine Art Photography at the Glasgow School of Art. The Degree Show took place in the famous Mackintosh building desighed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh - an outstanding international architect, artist and designer.

See more at Fine Art Photography by Ane Holsaae.

The portrait of Girl in orange chair by Ane Holsaae will also be shown on The Glasgow Collective exhibition: Ane Holsaae Fine Art Photography in London.

The Glasgow Collective inaugral exhibition will be held at Shoreditch Town Hall, London, opening on the 10th July and running till the 17th July 2009. The event will showcase a wide range of contemporary practices that surf all Fine Art disciplines.
I wish I could attend the exhibition.

King penguins at South Georgia Island gallery on Smugmug

2009-06-11T04:33:00.000-07:00

I did have some success in getting a HTML page and images indexed by Google with my gallery Adelie, Gentoo and Macaroni penguins in Antarctica.

I have tried the same with another gallery South Georgia Island and King Penguins but so far without any success. The last cache of the page is more than a month old.
Some of my most popular King penguin photos are shown on this page, so I am a bit disappointed right now. I have deleted the photo in the gallery and now it is all HTML. As this page is on my Smugmug site it means that I cannot any longer add comments. It is not shown in feeds anymore. I have also made the gallery invisible to Smugmug searches.
Hopefully this will help. The weeks to come will tell.

Update 2009-08-04:
Google has indexed this page on a number of different URL's (some of them not even belong to me, but to other Smugmug users), so I have deleted the gallery and started all over again. This time I have disabled the "Hello smuggers" before Google had the chance to index this gallery under other user accounts.
I hope that Smugmug will solve these serious SEO bugs soon - especially the duplicate page titles, the duplicate URL's and the duplicate Meta description issues.

Update 2010-10-12:
Smugmug have not solved these serious Search engine issues, and I do not think that they ever will.

Fast and friendly Smugmug support - Panoramio profile

2009-06-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

I did find a small security issue with my smugmug images and reported it to Smugmug help desk. They responded very quickly and fixed the issue in no time - very impressive.
I even got a free year of Smugmug. I feel really honored.

Hi Allan,

Thanks for getting back to us. Yes, this is a big deal. You are
correct, even with URL manipulation, the largest size returned should be
the largest viewing size that you have set in the gallery customization
screen. This has been fixed now :-) If you clear your browser cache
and try again, you shouldn't be able to URL manipulate your way to an -O
sized image now.

Again, thank you for bringing this to our attention. It's users like
you that really help us find little bugs like this that can become big
problems. You just got a free year of SmugMug as a reward :-) Please
let us know if there's anything else we can do for you. Thank you, and
have a great day!

Josh
SmugMug Support Hero

I tried searching for my Panoramio profile for LichtenHansen - Allan Hansen on Google and found nothing.
Most (I think) other Panoramio users have their profile indexed - Why not mine?
It may be one of those 20 plus SEO issues that no one knows about.
Well, It would be a boring world if you knew all the secrets.

SEO friendly Image hosting site wanted

2009-06-08T02:12:00.000-07:00

As an unknown photographer I am looking for an image hosting site which is up-to-date with the latest SEO-guidelines from Google and other search engines. It should also support geotagging of photos witch I believe will become very popular in the next few years.

I have looked at more than 20 reviews of photo / image hosting sites and none of them takes SEO (Search engine optimization) into consideration. It should be an important part of a review.

I have also checked more than 20 sites myself and most of them – if not all - fail to comply to even simple SEO guidelines such as Page title, Meta description, Header tags and Duplicate pages.

As a result only a tiny fraction of the images on those sites can be found on Google and other image search engines.

I still hope to find a SEO friendly image hosting site with geotagging facilities, but my hope fades.

Update: 2009-06-08

Just found Comparison of Image Sharing Sites for Potential SEO Benefit.
However, it is a bit outdated and not very trustworthy as Smugmug – which I know very well – are given way to many Green V’s (Should have Red X in “Unique page titles”, “Optimized URL’s”, “Add external link to photo page” (brake if you move photo to another gallery), “Allow user comments on photo pages” (implemented with Java and not visible to robots), “Img alt text” (only partly).

Missing in this comparison are important issues like “Meta description” , “duplicate pages” and success rate of indexed images in popular image search engines like Google and Yahoo.

Smugmug and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

2009-05-31T02:03:00.000-07:00

My Smugmug hosted photos are next to impossible to be found on Google and other Search engines.

I just read "Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide" found on Google's SEO Starter Guide page

I am really surprised to see all the hints they are NOT following and how many of the 'avoid's that they ARE doing on Smugmug.

To me this fully explains why Smugmug is doing so badly in Search Engines.

Smugmug have just introduced Smugmug's Feature feedback forum and one of the topics is "Improve our search engine results (better SEO)"

I gave it 3 votes and added the following comment:

It would be a good idea to follow all the tips and avoids described in the document "Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide" found on Google's SEO Starter Guide page

This includes - but not limited to:

Page titles,
Meta data,
URL-structure,
One URL per image
Navigation (HTML + XML Sitemap)
Anchor text
Use of heading tags
Image file names
Quality content
Duplicate versions of the same page.

Add to this a per image preferred size to be indexed. (Size do matter - Google has Small, medium, large and XL)

I was under the expression that they had already started improving this (postet on Dgrin), but this SEO issue is only "Planned". Hopefully they will start soon.

Update July 5, 2009

The Smugmug feature request Improve our search engine results (better SEO) is no longer planned. The status has changed to 'null' - 'nothing'. I hope this is not true.

If you are a Smugmug user - frustrated of not being found by Google and other Search Engines - Go and vote for this SEO-issue request - and do post your frustration on Smugmug Dgrin Forum.

I'm still hoping that Smugmug will take these SEO-issues serious one day, but by hope fades.

Does anyone knows about a SEO-friendly image hosting site?

Update August 25, 2009

Smugmug released a SEO-update and plan to release more later. Please check out my latest post about Smugmug and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Save the albatrosses + New About Me Smugmug page

2009-05-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

Changed my About LichtenHansen - Allan Hansen in Smugmug.
Much better than the previous version- more photos and better text.

I also added a link to Save the Albatross. These magnificent birds need all the help they can get.

New navigation bar in Smugmug

2009-05-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

I have changed the navigation bar on my SmugMug site. I wanted it to be horizontal and I was not happy about the solution found on Smugmug or Dgrin. I enden up using the idea found on Free CSS Drop-Down Menu Framework. I can highly recommend this solution for a horizontal drop-down menu in Smugmug.

The final horizontal navigation bar can be seen on my web site: Horizontal navigation bar in Smugmug.
Especially take a look at the Galleries nav link - multible level navigation bar - not bad at all.

So - why haven't I implemented this solution on my smugmug site - well - actually - Smugmug is not SEO-friendly (see The sad story about Smugmug and SEO.
So, If you chose to implement a site-wide navigation bar on your Smugmug site, your Search engine Optimization (SEO) will suffer.

My navigation bar is horizontal, but is shown here as vertical.
See the Horizontal CSS-based drop-down navigation bar on my Smugmug site.
(2010-10-19 Smugmug page no longer available)

LichtenHansen Home
popular photos
Galleries
DailyPhotos -New photos
Penguins
King penguin
Gentoo penguin
Adelie penguin braying dance
Adelie, Chinstrap and Gentoo Penguins
Other birds
Albatross
Birds - Tierra del Fuego
Landscapes and People
Unusual landscape photos
Madeira landscape photos
Nepal landscape and people
Photos from Denmark, Danmark
Swedish Lapland
Photos from Scotland
Funny videos of wildlife
Marine mammals in Antarctica
Garden pond and flowers
Fishing - Big fish
Small penguin galleries
South Georgia Island - 6 King penguin photos
Gallery with 6 Penguin photos
Links
Contact
About LichtenHansen - Allan Hansen
Guestbook for LichtenHansen - Allan Hansen
Blog - english by LichtenHansen
Blog - dansk af Allan Hansen
Allan Hansen on Danish National Television
Allan Hansen's Google Profile + email

I have also moved all links to a Link-page.

Update 2009-08-25
Smugmug has changed the URL structure, so I have updated the menu shown here.

Update 2010-05-19
Added a link to gallery with a multible level horizontal navigation bar.
Added a warning against using a site level navigation bar.

Update 2010-10-19Navigation bar removed from my Smugmug site and link removed.

Lemaire Channel + Gentoo penguin on Panoramio

2009-05-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

2 new photos are published on Panoramio:

1.

Lemaire Channel, Antarctica.

Lemaire Channel. The Antarctica scenic highlight. Steep cliffs hem in the iceberg-filled passage, which is 11 km long and just 1,600 meters wide at its narrowest point.

I hope - if you come to Antarctica – that you will see the Lemaire Strait in fine weather like this. The Antarctic Peninsula does have a lot of beautiful sceneries, but this strait is outstanding. This photo is only a 2-dimentional image of this place, and it doesn’t tell the whole story . I guess you have to see with our own eyes to believe it.

2.

Gentoo pengion chicks begging for food.

Hungry Gentoo pengion chicks begging for food at Booth Island, Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica.

From Wikipedia:

The Gentoo Penguin (pronounced /ˈdʒɛntuː/), Pygoscelis papua, is easily recognized by the wide white stripe extending like a bonnet across the top of its head. Chicks have grey backs with white fronts. Adult Gentoos reach a height of 51 to 90 cm (20-36 in),[1][2] making them the largest penguins outside of the two giant species, the Emperor Penguin and the King Penguin.

Two eggs are laid, both weighing around 500 g. The parents share incubation, changing duty daily. The eggs hatch after 34 to 36 days. The always hungry chicks remain in the nests for about 30 days before forming creches. The chicks molt into sub-adult plumage and go out to sea at about 80 to 100 days.

See more of my photos at Photos on Panoramio - Google Earth by LichtenHansen

King penguin search page changed

2009-05-05T10:17:00.000-07:00

I have changed the layout on South Georgia Island and King penguin as 4 of the thumbnails are indexed with the word "larger size".
The link is moved down a bit, so that the title is just below the photos.
I have to wait another 2-3 weeks to see if this helps.

update 2009-08-04:
Changed link.

Update 2009-08-25:
Changed link again to reflect URL structure changes in Smugmug.

Update 2010-10-12:
Changed links to my own web site, as I am closing down my Smugmug site.

Panoramio - New photos

2009-05-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

Published a few new photos for the Panoramio contest: Unusual landscape photos by Allan Hansen

1. Landscape with ocean view at New Island, Falkland Islands. Black-browed albatrosses are nesting just below the rocks with orange lichens.
Entered the Travel category.

2. Icebergs and Adelie penguin rookery near Palmer Station on Ansverse Island in Antarctica.
Entered the Unusual Location category.

2. Fiskenet hængt til tørre i aftenlys ved Tempelkrogens bådelaug ved Ågerup / Arnakke på Sjælland, Danmark.
Entered the Scenery category

Panoramio photos not yet indexed after a month

2009-04-28T23:03:00.000-07:00

A few of my photos published on panoramio: Unusual landscape photos by Allan Hansen have not yet been indexed after a month.

1. Clouds hanging low over the mountains in Bay of Isles, South Georgia Island.
I have changed the title from "Low hanging clouds around the peaks in Bay of Isles, South Georgia Island"

2. Southern Beech (Nothofagus) trees in the mountains above Valle de Andorra near Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.
I spelled Argentina with an "m"- changed it.

King penguin photo promotion status

2009-04-28T05:36:00.000-07:00

King penguins are my one of favorites. All photos in my little South Georgia Island and King penguin are King penguins.

The gallery is a HTML-only gallery with one hidden photo. 6 images are are shown in a HTML table with h1, h2,h3,h4 header and some other stuff, and links to a big size photo.

There were published on April 18 and promoted here on April 19. Phage have already been found on Google Text Search (6 times) and I hope that the photos - when indexed - will be found too.

Update 2009-08-04:
Made a new gallery without any photos (Google also indexes hidden photos and this means duplicate page titles and duplicate meata data etc) and changed the link to the new gallery.

Update 2010-10-17: Link to King penguin gallery changed from Smugmug to Photographer Allan Hansen

King penguin gallery promotion in Smugmug

2009-04-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

King penguins are my favorites.
All photos in my little South Georgia Island and King penguin are King penguins.
Links will also be published on Dgrin.
The gallery is a HTML-only gallery with one hidden photo. 6 images are are shown in a HTML table with h1, h2,h3,h4 header and some other stuff, and links to a big size photo. A link to the "popular" or the King penguins in South Georgia island are also shown just below the photos.

Update 2009-08-04:
Made a new gallery and changed the link to reflect this.
The links to my "popular" gallery are replaced with a link to King penguins in South Georgia island because if Google indexes page in the "popular" gallery multiplies the SEO problem with duplicate page titles, duplicate meta data etc.

Update 2010-10-12:
All links are replaced with links to my danish site King Penguins, as I'm closing down my Smugmug account.

Google Image Search comparison for Smugmug, Pbase and Panoramio

2009-04-12T15:29:00.000-07:00

I published this comparison on smugmug's DGrin forum on march 17, 2009 and still no reaction of any kind from Smugmug.

Inspired by this thread and a video from Google's Peter Linsley about "Get up-to-date on Image Search":
Video (15 min): http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...ge-search.html

I asked myself:
How good is SM doing on Google Image Search (GIS)? And how good is the visitor experience with people coming from GIS?

I tried many different keywords (with between 500 and 999 hits in SM excellent search engine) and the word "caracara" turned up to be give about average result for SM. Thumbnails from SM are very unreliable in Google Image search. Most of them do not lead you to a caracara in SM (Google Earth files, Thumbnail from today’s popular etc). Thumbnails will not likely turn up in a any Google Image Search and that is good, especially for a visitor and also for SM, so I counted only images before the first Thumbnail.

I Have chosen to compare with Pbase because they also have an inside search engine which I could use, and Panoramio because it is owned by Google, so this gives an estimate of the practical percentage of images you can expect to see in GIS. (Just like Flickr images in Yahoo image search),

Images in SM: 783 and 100% accurate.
Images in GIS: 15 and 66% accurate. Typical res 400x268. 5 linking to a www-URL, 5 linking to a Nickname-URL and 5 photos not linking to a caracara in SM.
Note: SM removes the frame when clicking an image from GIS, which makes it impossible to hit the "Back" for continuing the image search. This is really annoying.
Verdict for SM: 1.91% of images in GIS with poor resolution - and a bad user experience.

to comparison: result for Pbase:
Images in Pbase: 1408 - 100% accurate
Images in GIS: 223 - 100% accurate. Typical res 800x500
Verdict for Pbase: 15.83% of images in GIS with medium resolution - and a very good user experience.

to comparison with my images in panoramio which are not in my SM galleries:
Images in panoramio : 44
Images in GIS: 23 - 100% accurate. typical res 1100x800
Verdict for Panoramio(alone): 52.27% of images in GIS with original resolution - and a very good user experience.
(Theese photos do not exists anywhere else on the internet)

to comparison with my images in panoramio which are also in my SM galleries:
Images in panoramio : 36
Images in GIS: 7 - 100% accurate. typical res 1100x800
Verdict for Panoramio(+SM): 19.44% of images in GIS -with original resolution and a very good user experience.
(I cannot give an explanation to this - GIS might find similar images in SM and regard them as dublicates or ????)
(I have moved half of these images to a gallery not seen by SM or Google to see if this will make a difference. The weeks to come will tell)

New Albatross and penguin photos published in Panoramio

2009-04-11T03:50:00.000-07:00

1. Pair of Wandering albatrosses in mating ritual at Albatross Island, South Georgia Islands. The Wandering Albatross has the largest wingspan of any living bird, with the average wingspan being 3.1 meters (10.2 ft).

2. Moulting King penguins at Fortuna Bay, South Georgia Island. They prefer standing with their feet in the cold water.

Antarctica photos in Panoramio - My favorites.

2009-04-04T13:18:00.000-07:00

1. Blue iceberg with Adelie penguins near Paulet Island, Antarctica.

2. Sunrise in Antarctica. The scenic Lemaire Channel between Booth Island and the Antarctic Peninsula is glowing with golden orange colors in the early morning light. This narrow strait is considered one of the highlights in any cruise going to Antarctica.

Promoting a photo for GIS

2009-03-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

Gentoo penguins are my favorites.
All photos in my little penguin photo gallery are penguin photos.
Links are also published on Dgrin.

Smugmug URL's - Blog from Garret Wilson

2009-03-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

Found this blog:
Garret Wilson Blog 2008-04-21 Ridiculous SmugMug URLs which describes very accurately the URL structure in Smugmug.
I would not call it Ridiculous, but it does make it really difficult to get famous when you have chosen Smugmug as your photo host site.

Is it possible to get Smugmug photos into Google Image Search?

2009-03-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

Photos in Smugmug have a good chance of being indexed by Google Image search if Google robots know about the /Large type of pages.
I have constructed a HTML-page which links to 6 different photos to test this:
Photo gallery with penguins from Antarctica

If I am successful in this (takes a month or more to find out) then I can´t move the photos to another gallery. If I do this then the links will be invalid due to the very strange way Smugmug build an URL.

Update 2010-10-17: It is possible to make a Google friendly page in Smugmug. Create a gallery with no photos and code a HTML only page with embedded photos, header tags etc. However - this is a highly unproductive way do make Google friendly pages, so I have stopped using Smugmug as a photo hosting site. My penguin images are now moved to Penguin life in Antarctica.

Smugmug ignores the Image search problem.

2009-03-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

I thought that Smugmug was up to date with the principles of effective image search by popular image searching from Google, Yahoo, MSN and others They are not. They live in a world that stopped for at least 5 years ago.
Google Image Search indexes for example only ca. 1% of their images, and half of them refer to another picture on Smugmug than the image you see at Google's image search.
As a reference 50% of my pictures posted on Panoramio are indexed.

If Smugmug cannot find a solution to this little problem, then what is the advantage of a big site like Smugmug, if your images are not visible in search engines?

Ida think that I should make my own photo agency on the net with all the necessary functions, and it may also be the end result.

Smugmug is a great and old-fashioned company who have lost all sense of reality and they have indeed gone down in Google's rating of 8 to 7 not long ago and will probably go down further if they do not improve very soon.

So, SMUGMUG, do something very soon.

Their forum DGRIN are as always helpful with all kind of primitive workarounds, but when it comes to really serious questions, they simply do not even bother to react. It is really BIG company against "little stupid customer".
This is really not what I expected of a "respectable" company like Smugmug.
This Image Search (and normal text search) issue have been a problem for a lot of their customer for at least 2 years. They have done absolutely NOTHING so far.

So, once more, SMUGMUG, do something very soon.

Panoramio contest entries March 2009

2009-03-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

1. Unusual location: Icebergs in early morning light. Antarctic Sound, Antarctica.

2. Unusual location: King Penguin rookery in mountainous landscape at St. Andrews Bay, South Georgia Island.

3. Travel: Red sunset at Quiver tree (Aloe dichotoma) forest near Keetmanshoop in Namibia, Africa.

4. Scenery: Spring. Wood anemones (Anemone nemorosa) are covering the forest floor and the first Beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) have come into leaf in Noerreskov, Denmark.

5. Travel: Night in Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. At midsummer the days are long and it doen't really gets dark at night.

Nepal photo from Panoramio used by Nepal Travel

2009-03-13T02:49:00.000-07:00

My Photo from Nango Kola valley in Nepal is used by Nepal Travel

Snowcovered Nango Kola valley in eastern Nepal.

It can be seen as one of the photos on the Google Map on Nepals Travels page about Khamachin, Nepal

Johnny Rook in the Falklands on Steeple Jason Island

2009-03-12T10:51:00.000-07:00

Johnny Rook owns this island

Johnny Rook (Striated Caracara) and his beautiful island Steeple Jason, Falkland Islands.

Steeple Jason is a fantastic place. It is a beautiful island and the place is crowed with life. Albatrosses, penguin and then there is Johnny Rook.

I entered this photo in the december 2008 panoramio, but I did not promote it at all, so the photo only got a few votes.

First prize in Panoramio Photo centest

2009-03-11T04:51:00.000-07:00

First prize in Panoramio's January 2009 - Geotagged Photo Contest - Unusual Location

The south entrance to the narrow and scenic Lemaire Channel between the Antarctic Peninsula and Booth Island, Antarctica. I call it my Blue Antarctica Landscape.

Thanks a lot to everyone who voted on this photo.

Only Panoramio knows how many people actually voted on this photo, but it was viewed about 6500 times and 844 Panoramio users left a message to this photo during the contest month. Many thanks to all your kind words.