- Image via CrunchBase
One of the things I’ve found time-consuming about blogging is finding appropriate images to go along with posts (which is why so many of these posts are image-less…which is faster, but boring!)
I’ve just discovered a free Firefox plugin that claims to take the work out of this semi-arduous task.
Zemanta does this by analyzing your post’s content. It also claims to automatically create inline links and suggest tags.
It also pulls posts from around the Web, so I can see what other people have said about the same topics.
It’s free. It appears to be smart (I haven’t gotten too many garbage links yet).
The only drawback I’ve noticed so far: Though Zemanta claims to respect copyright, it pulled a wire photo while I was trying their interactive demo.
But I’m definitely keeping this one around and taking it for a longer spin.
Hi Rachel,
you can actually use that wire photo as long as you keep a backlink on it. As the license says…
In general we try filter out photos you surely can’t use and then let you know about the image details, so you can decide at the end.
bye
Andraz Tori, CTO at Zemanta
Hi Andraz — As the license from AP says, I believe that Zemanta’s license-detection algorithms are wrong. For example, right now there’s an AP image up there with a raw caption that includes “ONLINE OUT” — and if you’re familiar with AP at all, that’s self-explanatory.
@Andraz,
Hi! I’m loving this insta-response thing.
As I do not have a subscription to the AP, I’m pretty sure they would be unhappy if I used their content.
I haven’t noticed Zemanta pulling in creative-commons licensed Flickr images. Is that a source it pulls from as well?
P.S., where I said “AP” above, substitute “Getty”…
@Chris @Rachel
I was afraid for a moment that there really was an AP image there. You are allowed to include the thumbnail image from Getty via Daylife. As long as you keep a hyperlink on the thumbnail image to point to the Daylife site and keep the proper attribution. We have a deal that enables that.
That’s why those images are so small (150px by the longest edge).
@Chris: yes we do pull Flickr CC images too, you should be seeing them
bye
andraz