As part of an ongoing effort to document myself to better understand myself, I posted this design concept I created for Eric Roos' music business Dangeroos onto Flickr in August 2007.
The piece was designed back in 2002, and was a quick sketch or mood board for the Dangeroos Web site. The identity Dangeroos is a play on Eric's last name, so the choice for Interstate (the typeface) was obvious. Red was chosen because it suggests danger. Wave morphs, color rectangles and circular compositions dropped in to support the idea of sound.
Shortly after I started a project called Flickr Analytics to analyze Flickr's interestingness algorithm. Because of that, I become fairly aware of the individual image's ranking over time. To my surprise, this design stays consistently within the top 20 most interest images, and over the past few months, reigned as the number one most interesting image on my entire Flickr stream.
What was even more interesting to me is that the image also drives much traffic: more than 4000 views within the last 5 months, which amounts to 25+ views a day. That's a lot for an image with no human element.
So when Flickr Stats launched on 2007-12-17, it was a God send, for it enables me to analyze traffic and get a better understanding of where traffic is coming from.
How to get to Flickr Stats
To the bottom right corner, below the list of tags of an image on Flickr is what I would call the utility area of the page. This is also where you can access the Photo stats of the image in question. Clicking on the link will bring to a page similar to the one below:
Photo Stats
At this time, Flickr Stats only allows you to view detailed traffic information from the last 28 days, which is not as flexible as most site analytics tool, but is still much better than none at all.
The first time I saw this page I was stunned. Previously I had guessed that the reason why the Dangeroos design was popular had to do with that it was the first image on my 100 Most Interesting Design (set), which is why I had kept it on my Flickr homepage all these time. Data suggests otherwise. In fact, 54% of its traffic (1,041 visits) came from images.search.yahoo.com and 30% (572 visits) came from flickr.com.
Really? What were people searching for on Yahoo? I clicked on the domain name and get to the referrer detail page for the Yahoo Image Search:
Apparently, I'm getting a lot of hits from Yahoo from people search for graphic design. FlickrStats has a nice feature which allows you to click on the keywords to go directly to the search results in question. This is where I noted that apparently back in 2007-12-18, searching for graphic design on Yahoo put this piece on the first 5 results:
Image Search Algorithm
If you think about how difficult it is to develop a useful text search algorithm, you can image how challenging it must be to create a good image search algorithm. Indeed, until most recently, Google Image Search relies on the image's file name alone to feed you results.
Aside from gaining a huge user base, Yahoo's decision to buy Flickr is obvious: image tagging data.
Tagging is a voluntary act by the user: creating meta data to organize his collection fo photo much easier. To the search engine, however, tagging is free metadata association. One strategy is deciphering whether the tags are accurate can go like this: each time someone search for a search term, say graphic design, my search engine will throw 20 images associated with that tag on the search results page. An image that's more related to that search term will more likely to be clicked on by someone searching for that result.
With time and patience, it would be possible for me to figure out which tags are valid and which tags are not. People who search for the search term and then either favorited or commented on that photo would mean that image is more relevant (and thus "interesting") to that search term.
The same strategy can be applied to Flickr Groups. When you post an image to a particular group, the group usually is associated with certain keywords. When users click on an image among all others, they are functioning as bots with very advanced algorithms to do things that machine cannot yet do: identify the good images from the rest. I call humans participating in these activities BioBots.
The key in these systems is to identify the experts. Once you have collected enough data on a user and noticed, for example, that they have a degree in graphic design, working in the graphic design field, and perhaps are members of mostly graphic design groups, it may be fair to say that their opinions on graphic design matter more. You can thus put in your algorithm to give their opinions more weight for the same reason why KOL (key opinion leaders) in pharma talk has their role in medical sites.
©2008 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Flickr Analytics: The making of interestingness / SML Analytics
Saturday, October 6, 2007
100 Most Interesting Notes / Flickr Analytics / SML
SML Flickr: Collections: Flickr Analytics: 100 Most Interesting Notes
(Thumbnails / Detail / Comments)
Set automatically generated daily by dopiaza's set generator
100 most interesting notes from the SML Notebook sorted as according to Flickr's interestingness algorithm.
See-ming Lee 李思明 SML = Design + Technology + Marketing Strategy
Notebook
See-ming's notebook of choice is Moleskine
Pen
See-ming's pen of choice is Faber-Castell PITT artist pen superfine
Related SML
SML Google
SML Ideas
SML LinkedIn
SML Pro Blog
SML Universe
SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee / SML Flickr / SML Universe. All rights reserved.
SML Copyright Notice
©2007 See-ming Lee 李思明 SML / SML Pro Blog / SML Universe. All rights reserved.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Hiro / 2007 / SML
Hiro at the Maritime Hotel. This set is automatically generated and sorted daily according to Flickr's interestingness algorithm.
SML Flickr Tags
SML Flickr Tags: Friends
SML Flickr Tags: Gay
SML Flickr Tags: Life
SML Flickr Tags: Men
SML Flickr Tags: People
SML Flickr Collections
SML Flickr Collections: Gay Pride New York 2007
SML Flickr Collections: SML People
SML Flickr Groups
SML Flickr Groups: Homo Magi
SML Flickr Groups: Ideal Husbands
SML Flickr Groups: Life Celebrates Diversity
SML Flickr Groups: Meta Men
SML Flickr Groups: SML Men
Flickr Analytics
Flickr Analytics: Most Interesting Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2007
Flickr Analytics: Most Interesting Design
Flickr Analytics: Most Interesting Gay Men
Flickr Analytics: Most Interesting Gay Pride New York 2007
Flickr Analytics: Most Interesting Ideal Husbands
Flickr Analytics: Most Interesting Images
Flickr Analytics: Most Interesting People
SML Domains
SML Domains: SML Analytics
SML Domains: SML Flickr
SML Domains: SML Friends
SML Domains: SML Life
SML Domains: SML Men
Content Syndication
You may syndicate this content for non-commercial purposes as long as you attribute credits to me. Commercial usage will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Model Credits
If you know the models of the photograph, please email me at seeminglee+flickr@gmail.com so I can give them proper credits.
Copyright Notice
Copyright 2007 See-ming Lee (SML Pro Blog) / Flickr Analytics. All rights reserved.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
100 Most Interesting Design / Flickr Analytics / SML
(Thumbnails / Detail / Comments)
This Flickr set is automatically generated daily by dopiaza's set generator.
100 most interesting design items from the SML Collection on Flickr sorted by interestingness.
SML Collection = SML Advertising + SML Awards + SML Graphic Design + SML Identity Design + SML Icons + SML Information Architecture + SML Information Design + SML Interaction Design + SML Photography;
SML Advertising = See-ming Lee 李思明 SML + Advertising;
SML Awards = See-ming Lee 李思明 SML + Awards;
SML Graphic Design = See-ming Lee 李思明 SML + Graphic Design;
SML Icon Design = See-ming Lee 李思明 SML + Iconography;
SML Identity Design = See-ming Lee 李思明 SML + Identity Design;
SML Information Architecture = SML IA = See-ming Lee 李思明 SML + Information Architecture;
SML Information Design = See-ming Lee 李思明 SML + Information Design;
SML Interaction Design = See-ming Lee 李思明 SML + Interaction Design;
SML UI Design = See-ming Lee 李思明 SML + User Interface Design;
SML Web Design = See-ming Lee 李思明 SML + Web Design;
See-ming Lee 李思明 SML = Design + Technology + Marketing Strategy;
See-ming Lee 李思明 SML = Continuing to push technology’s limitations to solve complex business and design challenges in powerful + integrated ways;
Related Collections
Flickr Analytics (Collection)
SML Collection (Collection)
SML Copyright Notice
Copyright 1976-present See-ming Lee 李思明 SML (SML Flickr / SML LinkedIn / SML Pro Blog). All rights reserved.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
200 Most Interesting People / Flickr Analytics / SML
My 200 most interesting photographs of people on Flickr.
Flickr Analytics
SML Analytics
SML Copyright Notice
Copyright 1976-2007 See-ming Lee (SML Flickr / SML LinkedIn / SML Pro Blog). All rights reserved.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Relaxation / Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2007 / SML
Related Flickr Sets
- 200 Most Interesting Images / Flickr Analytics / SML (Set)
- 20 Random Top Views / Flickr Analytics / SML (Set)
- 20 Most Interesting Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2007 / Flickr Analytics / SML (Set)
- Coney Island Mermaid Parade 2007 / SML (Set)
- SML Photographs 李思明攝影 (Set)
Copyright 2007 See-ming Lee (SML Pro Blog) / SML Photographs. All rights reserved.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Brooklyn Bridge Sunset HDR / SML
Setup
Canon EOS 10D
Canon 70-200 f/4L
Manfrotto 3021BPRO
Exposure Settings
100mm, ISO 100
CRW_40087: 0.3 s, f/8
CRW_40088: 1/6 s, f/8
CRW_40089: 0.7 s, f/8
CRW_40090: 1.5 s, f/16
CRW_40091: 0.7 s, f/16
CRW_40092: 3.0 s, f/16
File name
CRW_40087-40092_01
Related Flickr Sets
HDR Photography (Set)
SML Photography (Set)
Related Flickr Collection
Flickr Analytics (Collection)
SML Collection (Collection)
SML Content Syndication
You may syndicate this content for non-commercial purposes. Commercial usage will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
SML Copyright Notice
Copyright 2006 See-ming Lee (Blog / Facebook / Google / LinkedIn). All rights reserved.
Charmed / L*a*b / 20070212.10D.41207 / SML
Model
Prince Lee
Setup
Canon 10D
Canon 17-40 f/4L
Canon 430EX
Process
Reprocessed in L*a*b space
SML Flickr
200 Most Interesting Images / Flickr Analytics / SML (Set)
SML Photographs 李思明攝影 (Set)
Reprocessing / Lab / Study (Set)
SML Copyright Notice
Copyright 2007 See-ming Lee (SML Pro Blog). All rights reserved.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Socialistics = Facebook + Analytics
Alex Rainert (Blog / Google / LinkedIn) sent me an interesting Facebook application called Socialistics today and it looks fairly interesting.
Essentially, it's an analytics application that visualizes the raw data from your Facebook profile as readable charts. Mashable has a write-up on this, but I felt that their illustration does not do a very good job in showing the power of this application.
I took some screenshots of the application using my Facebook data and this is what it looks like:
Hopefully this will do better justice for this little gem!
SML Copyright Notice
Copyright 2007 See-ming Lee (Blog / Google / LinkedIn) / SML Analytics. All rights reserved.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Flickr Analytics / SML Analytics
Objective.
- Analyze the Flickr Intersestingness algorithm.
Methodology
- Tagging and grouping top 20 images from the Popular-Views, Popular-Favorites and Popular-Comments pages on Flickr.
- Compare results with images from the various sets via AND / OR operators.
Preliminary Analysis
Related tags: top-v111 / top-v333 / top-v555 / top-v777 / top-v999 / top-v1111 / top-v2222 / top-v3333 / top-v4444 / top-v5555 / views-top20
Related tags: favorites / favorites-5 / favorites-10 / favorites-15 / favorites-20 / favorites-25 / favorites-30 / favorites-35 / favorites-40 / favorites-45 / favorites-50 / favorites-55 / favorites-top20
Related tags: comments-top20
All three galleries combined give you the winning ingredients for market success for any advertising campaigns. These sets, as such, double-duty as quick-visual reference for your next photoshoot.
If analyzing my own photographs give me this conclusion, I can only imagine the entire collection of images hosted on Flickr can provide.
Hypothesis: Top Interesting = Algorithm (Views, Favorites, Comments)
AND(Views, Favorites, Comments) / Flickr Analytics / SML (Set)
Thumbnails / Detail / Slideshow
I hypothesize that Yahoo is using these data to train an AI (artifical intelligence) algorithm to predict images that will be influential. (Related: see my blog post on Theorizing aesthetics). And if they aren't, I think that they should. Google literally dominates the text-ad market by indexing every single bit of text available to them, it would be smart for Yahoo to pick a different market segment and become the expert in it.
200 Most Interesting Images / Flickr Analytics / SML (Set)
Thumbnails / Detail / Slideshow
200 Most Interesting People / Flickr Analytics / SML (Set)
Thumbnails / Detail / Slideshow
200 Most Interesting Designs / Flickr Analytics / SML (Set)
Thumbnails / Detail / Slideshow
Notes
(1) Top 20 ranking fluctuates. As a result, it is possible for the Top-20 sets to have more than 20 photographs.
SML
SML = See-ming Lee = Design + Technology + Marketing Strategy;
SML Copyright Notice
Copyright 2007 See-ming Lee. All rights reserved.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
SML Collection = See-ming Lee + Design + Technology + Marketing Strategy
SML Collection = See-ming Lee + Awards + Graphic Design + Icons + Identity Design + Information Architecture + Information Design + Interaction Design + Photogarphy;
The accumulation of the complete SML Collection is currently in progress. For the full collection of work available in text-only format, visit SML LinkedIn or SeemingLee.com;
This collection of work is available on Flickr as SML Collection (Collection);
You can also see SML Projects (Collection) for projects break-down by client name + project name;
SML
SML = See-ming Lee = Design + Technology + Marketing Strategy;
Continuing to push technology’s limitations to solve complex business and design challenges in powerful + integrated ways;
SML Awards
SML Awards = See-ming Lee + Awards;
SML Graphic Design
SML Graphic Design = See-ming Lee + Graphic Design;
SML Icons
SML Icons = See-ming Lee + Icons;
SML Identity Design
SML Identity Design = See-ming Lee + Identity Design;
SML Information Architecture
SML Information Architecture = SML IA = See-ming Lee + Information Architecture;
SML Information Design
SML Information Design = See-ming Lee + Information Design;
SML Interaction Design
SML Interaction Design = See-ming Lee + Interaction Design;
SML Photography
SML Photography = See-ming Lee + Photography;
Most Interesting 100 SML Design Collection / Flickr Analytics / SML Analytics
Here are my most interesting 100 items from my design collection as according to Flickr's interestingness engine. It is automatically generated daily:
Most Interesting 200 SML Collection / Flickr Analytics / SML Analytics
Here are my most interesting 200 items from everything posted on Flickr as according to Flickr's interestingness engine. It is automatically generated daily:
SML Copyright Notice
Copyright 1976 - present See-ming Lee. All rights reserved.