PHOTOGRAPHERS. A start-up company called Taproll is hoping to change the way that buyers find and compare photography pros. Taproll belives that as the number of professional and semi-pro photographers has exploded, the tools for connecting photographers with consumers have not kept pace. When searching online for a photographer, the consumer is confronted with a sea of search results, paid link directories, and inconsistent website experiences.
So, Taproll is beta testing a visual-search application that will make it easy for consumers in 10,000 cities to flip through hundreds of large-scale photo galleries to choose the best local photographer for their needs. The company was founded by Michael Quoc, a former product director for Yahoo! who managed product launches in the mobile social and real-time video areas.
Taproll provides a unified search index of photographers around the world. Via a simple and efficient interface, users can swiftly browse through hundreds of high-resolution photographer galleries and zero in on their favorite artists. Users can then access comparison tools, reviews, and pricing information to make an informed hiring decision.
Taproll’s geospatial media search engine will be available for photographers in 10,000 cities worldwide. This means consumers can easily find local photographers who have the desired visual style and capabilities.
“Hiring a photographer should feel less like sorting through search results and more like viewing a photographic gallery,” says Quoc.
For photographers, Taproll offers a change from the current generation of paid photography directories. Taproll is free, and provides high-resolution image hosting, inclusion in the company’s geo-targeted search index, and a fully-featured business page that is already optimized for web search engines such as Google. Quoc says that some photographers are considering using Taproll as their primary business page, because it provides many of the core messaging, analytics and portfolio features of a standalone website. The company plans to announce a set of enhanced features for premium subscribers.
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I’ve been on Taproll for a few months now and actually got a gig through it. I like the big pics they give you, and since its free its worth setting up a basic profile. I’m looking forward to more things from this site.
I liked the big pictures on the site. It was a little slow loading for me though. Any idea if many people actually find photogs on this service?
As a wedding planner Taproll is a great research tool for me. Unlike other websites there is a better display of work by the photographers unlike many other directories where there is just basic information. As a wedding planner a need more than the basic information about a photographer in order to make sure my clients will be pleased.
I have recently got married and Taproll was a great resource. I had searched other websites but they didn’t not have detailed information about photographers. Planning my wedding I wanted to find out as much as possible about the photographer I was hiring to make sure I was hiring the right photographer