New Domain Names

Want To Do It All?

Then check out Image Explorer Pro 5.2 at www.cdhnow.com. This program can acquire images directly from scanners and digital cameras, create animated GIF files, edit/create videos and add 3D text and shapes to pictures. It also has an icon editor with a full range of tools for creating and manipulating Windows icons. There is even a wallpaper manager. Cost is $50. You can download a fully-functional evaluation copy from their website. Let us know how you like it.

From a recent "State of the Internet" report from the U.S. Internet Council: The number of unique indexable Web pages grew from 1 billion in January 2000 to more than 2 billion in June; 64% of people living in Finland and 60% of people living in Sweden are wireless users compared to 27% for the U.S.; Congo remains the only African country without direct Internet access; the "digital divide" is primarily income-based and not race-based; and the average U.S. Internet economy worker earns $46,000 per year, compared to the national average of $28,000 per year.

Imagine a photobuyer seeing one of your pictures or descriptions in a photo catalog, swiping a barcode-like reader over a tiny group of lines and graphics in the text, and having your image delivered electronically to their art department. It's coming. This spring, the Charleston Post and Courier became the first daily newspaper to physically link its print edition to its e-commerce site, using "the world's smallest bar code standard" by GoCode (www.gocode.com, and click on the PRESS hyperlink -- the others don't say much). The printed barcode fits easily within a line of text. Go here www.gocode.com/press_PostandCourier_4_30_00.htm to see. The really great part of this linkage is that no other info was required at the time of the transaction. Just a swipe of the pen handled the entire operation, from ordering, through payment, to delivery. What was the purchase? One dozen roses. What could be next? Your stock images!

Last month we told you about a major change Microsoft made with the introduction of its latest Internet Explorer version 5.5. Now you can download this (technically BETA software) cookie-control security enhancement from www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.htm. (The download file size can range from 6 to over 17Mb. A CD can also be ordered instead on the website for $6.95.)

As with all things Internet, there's good and there's bad. Web-bugs are tiny bits of code that can be embedded into e-mails, documents, and probably just about anything on the Internet that can alert specified persons as to the recipient of the document, etc., each time it's passed around. The bad side is that your actions can be tracked. The good side is that, as the owner of your creative efforts, the same web-bug technology can be used to notify YOU of who's downloading and passing around your photos. It's easily exterminated if the surfer has disabled cookies or uses firewall software. Some ISPs automatically block such activity (we've heard AOL is blocking).

Bill Hopkins is the Webmaster of PhotoSourceFolio* (www.photosourcefolio.com) and a regular contributor to PhotoStockNotes. Send comments via e-mail to wh@photosourcefolio.com. Fax: 1 818 831-0916. Or US Mail: PhotoStockNotes. (*Display 6 of your images on our Web site!) For on-line marketing questions, contact Bill on the Cracker Barrel at www.photosource.com/board.