Today Shutterstock announced that they are investing aggressively in search technology with a series of innovations in the first half of 2010.

Shutterstock’s recent search enhancements include:

• Saved Search and Search Alerts, features that empower image buyers to track topics of interest easily and automatically. Customers can receive free e-mail notifications when new images match a saved search.
• People Search, which identifies images based on the number of people in a photograph, as well as their gender, age, and ethnicity.
• An improved Similar Images Search, which recommends other images based on qualities such as keywords, image colors and models.
• A Real-Time Search engine, which indexes new images within seconds, rather than hours. Image and footage buyers will see fresh content faster, including up-to-the-minute editorial images.

Additionally, Shutterstock continues to refine its proprietary “Most Popular” results algorithm, which weighs keyword relevance, image download frequency, and other customer behavior. The search engine produces more accurate results than competing stock sites, and is especially precise with searches involving multiple words.

Search improvements benefit artists as well. Shutterstock crowdsources the talents of photographers, illustrators and videographers around the world who earn money when customers download their content. Real-Time Search means approved images and footage will appear on Shutterstock faster, and a “Newest First” search results page will always display fresher and more varied content.

“We pride ourselves on innovation and attention to the needs of image and footage buyers,” said Jon Oringer, founder and CEO of Shutterstock. “Building the stock image industry’s best search engine shows our commitment to our customers and confirms our leadership position among providers of visual content.”