Stipple Invents the 'Intelligent Image' to Permanently Reconnect Stakeholders With Their Images, Solve the Image Attribution Problem and Automatically Turn E-Commerce Images Into Storefronts

SAN FRANCISCO, July 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Stipple, the pioneering image technology Company, today announces the birth of the Intelligent Image.  Anyone can now create Intelligent Images by using Stipple's new, social image community, available today in public beta at http://stipple.com. Stipple is a comprehensive technology platform that promises to solve the fundamental problems surrounding web images -- attribution, search, and monetization.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120726/SF46857-INFO)

Stipple has created a system that enables images to 'remember' information and communicate rich, interactive stories through all copies of a given photo on Internet. By leveraging the web's finest image tagging tools, Stipple users can link video, products, ads, commerce, or attribution – anything that has a URL – to points of interest inside their photos. While many other sites that allow users to tag and caption photos, only Stipple ensures that once information is added to a photo, that information will remain with all copies of that photo, even as the image is re-published on other services, sites, or web applications.

"Pick a brand, any brand large or small. More people look at the brand's images on the open web, than those who visit the brand's websites and view its ads -- combined," said Rey Flemings, Co-founder and CEO, Stipple. "Images are the web's largest channel in terms of audience. But no one has had the ability to actually remain connected to and in control of their images on the open web – until now."

"In our recent campaign for the 2012 Euro Cup, Stipple's Intelligent Images generated unmatched audience engagement rates exceeding 18% for the products contained in the photos," said Alceo Rapagna, Chief Digital Officer, RCS Media Group, one of the largest publicly traded media companies in Europe. "Stipple has worked so well for both our advertisers and our audience, that the largest portals in Italy, Virgilio.it and Libero.it, have now joined RCS in implementing Stipple."

The company is also announcing a solution to the image search problem. By installing the new Stipple extension, anyone can now view accurate, real-time information inside any Stippled image anywhere on the web, including sites like Pinterest, Facebook, Tumblr, People, Twitter, Yahoo and Google. Pinterest users, as an example, will no longer be forced to guess, click and hunt through layers of blogs trying to find out information on a product. They will be able to view accurate information directly inside photos on Pinterest by using the Stipple extension.

By ensuring that information remains with a photo despite editing and widespread republication, the new Stipple also solves the image attribution problem that plagues today's rights holders. Stipple is able to identify "owned" images published throughout the web and reconnect those photos with their rights holders. Image rights holders can use Stipple to claim their photos, which ensures that their images perpetually include their copyright information and links back to their portfolio – even if the photo's metadata is removed. Stipple also ensures that if an image earns money, the rights holder earns a revenue share.

Stipple also introduces the web's only 100% accurate, automatic tagging solution for catalog and e-commerce images.  Stipple automatically and accurately tagged over 800,000 product photos for one of the world's largest e-commerce companies.

Stipple is proud to announce that it will offer this technology to small businesses. Beginning today, all Etsy sellers can connect their stores to Stipple and have their entire catalogue of product images automatically tagged, free of charge. Stipple will automatically update price and product availability changes on all copies of Etsy seller photos, wherever they're published, throughout the web.  The company also provides real-time engagement and reach analytics.

Over 4,000 online publishers have also already chosen to install Stipple on their websites and display Stippled image content to their audiences. Those publishers generate over 1 billion page views per month. Stipple publishers enjoy the highest engagement rates in the image industry, with many publishers routinely reporting engagement rates greater than 100x their display ad engagement rates.

To sign up for your free Stipple account, please visit www.Stipple.com.

About Stipple:

Stipple has reimagined the online image and is committed to making images intelligent. Stipple enables accurate information and rich media to be added to images and ensures that the correct information remains associated with the correct photo throughout the web. Stipple is based in San Francisco and funded by Floodgate, Kleiner Perkins, Relevance Capital and a syndicate of prominent early-stage investors.

For more on Stipple please go to www.Stipple.com, or visit us on our blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

SOURCE Stipple