Oneupweb Reviews: PicApp WordPress Plug-In Simplifies Your Search for Free Images
One of your colleagues finally gets his blog post in, and seemingly on time. However, as you cut and paste the content into WordPress you realize the writer neglected to include an appropriate image. In a serious crunch for time and with nothing else to post, you’re now stuck with the headache of looking for free, high-quality images on Flickr Commons or Google Images.
PicApp has a plug-in that could save you time and money. Unlike most stock photo websites, PicApp’s plug-in lets you embed licensed material from leading digital media distributors such as Getty Images without leaving WordPress. For free.
PicApp WordPress Plugin from PicappAccount on Vimeo.
PicApp admits there are some compatibility issues – mainly slower response times and errors that occur only when using the plug-in with the newer WordPress versions. It’s a problem the company expects to have fixed next week. PicApp’s recent partnership with Automattic, the web development company responsible for WordPress, makes it imperative the company meet that deadline.
The plug-in, originally designed for WordPress version 2.7 (released in December 2008), lets you search more than 20 million high-quality images. The site’s search function offers a simplistic sorting feature that lets you filter out irrelevant images. For example, if you’re looking for a picture that represents twilight – the time of day, not the movie – you can choose the editorial option. Or if you are looking for the movie, sort by the entertainment subcategory.
In addition to making it easy for you to find stock images as well as timely news photos, PicApp claims its embedded images improve image search engine optimization. When you choose an image the ALT text within the code already contains an accurate description. Automatic, accurate ALT text saves you the additional hassle of completing this detail.
ALT text plays a relatively small role in your site’s overall SEO picture, but it does play a role. In addition, it helps increase the likelihood that the image from your blog shows up in image search results (although those results are likely diluted by the same image potentially being chosen by a number of bloggers).
Official Oneupweb Reviews: Oneup Thumbs-Up! (Not all blogging platforms support PicApp, but the more popular ones, including TypePad, Blogger and WordPress, do, making it a viable contender for many bloggers.)
