We announced this week that a new search engine for Jupiterimages.com was officially launched.

In actuality the search engine became operational about four weeks ago, but we did not want to formally announce its launch until we were sure the software was operating on all cylinders.

This is a significant event in our brief history as one of the larger providers of stock photos in the world. While we still have more additions coming to our search engine, we now can compete with larger providers on equal footing. Until recently larger ad agencies and buyers of stock photos were reluctant to use Jupiterimages because of the kludginess of our search - no longer is this the case.

The proof of the pudding about the effectiveness of the new search engine is in usage. We have seen a pick up in use of our Jupiterimages.com since launch of the new search. I cannot guarantee that this trend will continue, but certainly it is heartening to see what has happened this month.

This new search is only one of many software initiatives that Jupiterimages is rolling out in coming months. We are now equal to anyone in image quality and soon it is arguable that we will be the equal to any competitor on the software side of business as well.

I must say that I did not recognize two years ago the complexity of software development that is required to be a leader in the stock photo business. It seems that everyday a new project is started to further enhance our offerings or to launch new offshoots from our existing collections as growth opportunities become apparent. We can always use more help for these projects. Anyone in software development that would like to consider working at Jupitermedia should contact our Human Resources office to let us know of such interest. We are always on the hunt for a few good people in the development field.