Corbus Unveils Refreshed Web Site And New Photography

Online Product News, July 1, 2009

Corbis, Seattle, a leading visual media provider for the creative community, has refreshed its web site at http://www.corbis.com and launched several new rights-managed photography collections. The enhancements make finding and licensing images from the Corbis web site easier and more convenient for customers.

Refreshed web site improves interface, adds more intuitive image categories

Corbis' new web site features a predominantly dark interface that makes photography stand out when customers search for and view it. The dark background reduces on-screen visual distractions and helps customers view details of imagery.

On the new site, Corbis photography is more intuitively categorized and easier to browse or search. Customers looking for creative imagery can choose between rights-managed and royalty-free, while customers looking for editorial imagery can select from documentary, fine art, archival, current events, and entertainment categories.

Corbis also updated and simplified the web site interface, search functionality, lightbox, and checkout process. Some of the new features include "floating" search filters that remain on the left side of the page so customers can refine their search while browsing results. The enhanced search adds powerful new filters such as the ability to specify images without people. It also includes a "related images" option so customers can quickly find similar images to one originally identified. Corbis has created more than 50,000 sets of related images from individual photo shoots with the same models or the same theme, to help customers find the right picture more quickly.

The web site also features instant image previews: larger versions of a picture that appear when hovering over thumbnail images. These previews include detailed title, caption and date information, to help customers make faster decisions.

The web site has been rebuilt on an entirely new development platform. This will allow faster, more frequent updates and feature enhancements to improve the experience for customers. Corbis also undertook rigorous usability testing with key customers and media partners to ensure the new site addressed customer needs and workflows.

New stylistic collections

Corbis also announced five new collections featuring images with clearly defined aesthetics and subject matter. These carefully edited collections have been created to help clients find the photography they need for a wide range of projects.

The new collections include the following:

* Crush - a highly stylized collection with a conspicuous approach to visual communication.

* Ivy - a mainstream collection that employs classic techniques and appeals to traditional sensibilities.

* Latitude - a commercially ready collection of editorial photography from the world's best documentary photographers.

* Terra - a high-quality collection created for editorial customers with relevant imagery of our world.

* Encyclopedia - a comprehensive collection geared for editorial customers dedicated to simple, well-crafted depictions of a wide range of subjects.

"We've redesigned Corbis.com to better showcase one of the world's greatest collections of photography and make it easy for customers to find and license," said Nairn Nerland, Senior vice president, Networks, for Corbis. "The web site is built on new technology, so this is just the first of many improvements to deliver a better online experience for our customers."

For more information, visit http://www.corbis.com or call 212/445-8027.