Despite everyone lumping Istock and Getty into the same hat I think it is important to make a distinction.  When the Google Drive deal was announced the first posts in the Istock forum by admins amounted to "what deal?  Umm let us get back to you on that we need to check with corporate".  They could have been lying but I do believe Istock staff were not informed of this, or at least it never got down to the level of people who post on forums.  The Google Drive deal was done by Getty and it seems they neglected to inform Istock about it until it came out in the wash.

And it is also important to remember that Getty in turn is owned by the Carlyle Group, a private equity group that will have it's own agenda.  The contributor of content is so far down the chain of command here that they don't even register. 

Istock staff may want to sell micro-stock photography but
Getty wants to maximize it's profit on selling stock photography and it's other assets but
Carlyle Group wants to maximize the return on it's investment to it's investors.

See the difference in point of view as you move up the ladder?  Istock staff MAY care about their contributors but their bosses at Getty certainly do not, though they MAY care about their stable of RM photographers and wholly owned collections, but Getty's bosses at Carlyle Group care only about making Getty look good enough to justify their $3.3B purchase price.   Are the people making decisions even thinking about photography?  Or just about how to make the company look good enough to sell?

100 years ago corporate coal barons sat in mansions and laughed at the idea that common miners would dare to argue for better working conditions or even accurate scales so they would be paid fairly.  I have this vision of some suits smoking cigars and chuckling over the idea that a few common photographers would dare to question a deal that might bring millions into the Getty coffers.

Which makes you wonder what drama is coming up next?

• Good pricing
• Good search
• Good images

If this doesn't make the few exclusives waiting to see the sun on the horizon realize it's always gonna be a  cloudy day then I don't know what would.