Embed code contains photos.smugmug.com instead of custom domain

OffTopic · May 31, 2016

When I tried to grab the embed code so I could post a photo on my blog today I noticed that the image source code now references the photo at photos.smugmug.com instead of my custom domain. The problem affects Photo Only, HTML and BB Code. I'm a pro photographer with a pro smugmug site, so that is not acceptable for my purposes.

It took me about 20 minutes of playing around to figure out the correct embed code using my custom domain, and that's really annoying. Is this a bug, or was it a purposeful change? I'd really like to have this fixed so that the code that is automatically generated references my custom domain.

denisegoldberg · May 31, 2016

Lori -
Take a look at leftquark's comments in the thread Direct link for photo no longer through my own domain.

Hopefully he will jump in here with comments.

--- Denise

OffTopic · May 31, 2016

Thanks Denise! I swear I searched for the topic before posting!!
Just a note, replacing photos.smugmug.com with my domain did NOT work at all for me, that's why it took me so long to figure out the correct link to use. I kept getting an error message that said my domain unexpectedly closed the connection. I had to go back to a previous blog post and check the syntax and make up my own link.

Glad to hear that it's a bug and will be fixed!

OffTopic · May 31, 2016

Oh I think I spoke too soon, I just realized that post is from more than a month ago and it's an intentional change??

leftquark · May 31, 2016

The URL that we return in the embed code in the link (the A HREF or the BBCODE URL=) will always point to your custom domain. From a professionalism / SEO perspective, this is exactly what you'd want. The links directly to the photos (IMG SRC=) are masked by the custom domain being the link.

denisegoldberg · May 31, 2016

I knew the thread was there because I followed it when it was first posted - and I still had a hard time finding it.

Yes, it was a deliberate change. I hope leftquark sees this thread and can respond to your concerns. Based on what I read in the other thread it sounds like the change to pull the image using photos.smugmug.com shouldn't hurt SEO, the <a href= statements still use your custom URL. Some additional discussion would help.

--- Denise

leftquark · May 31, 2016

denisegoldberg wrote: »

I hope leftquark sees this thread and can respond to your concerns. Based on what I read in the other thread it sounds like the change to pull the image using photos.smugmug.com shouldn't hurt SEO, the <a href= statements still use your custom URL. Some additional discussion would help.

Here to the rescue! If there are other concerns besides SEO, let me know and I can try to address them. I'd certainly like to understand what the concerns are, if it's something else!

Ferguson · June 1, 2016

OK, you probably expected this, but I still object to this on general grounds of visibility.

When I put an HTTP link to the image into a posting somewhere (which turns into am IMG link), I want to see my custom domain, not yours. More precisely I want my viewers to see it. We could argue whether or not it matters all day, but as a customer of Smugmug I do object to you usurping my domain in this specific circumstance.

Now that said, I can simply edit the link provide to change it into my own domain, so this registers only as an annoying change, not a killer problem.

But it is annoying you decide to do this.

Just to be clear, the highlighted area on the attachment is the one I believe should maintain the custom domain, as that is what I use 99.9% of the time. The link above (which DOES maintain the custom domain) is the link to the lightbox, I want JUST the image.

OffTopic · June 2, 2016

Yes, Ferguson's example is what I want too. I do not always want to embed a clickable photo which means I don't always use A HREF. It depends on what gallery I am pulling the photo from and my reason for posting it. I have one gallery just for "blog uploads" and I don't want those photos to be clickable when I embed them in a blog post; I specifically don't want people to be able to directly access that gallery with a click. I just want to embed the photo, and it needs to use my domain. Sure I can go in and manually change the link, but now it's a real pain and extra work for me for something that used to be so easy and simple.

leftquark · June 2, 2016

I'd like to understand why it "needs" to use your domain? What is the downside to having it using photos.smugmug.com?

I'll get into a little technical details but also keep it fairly simplistic: SmugMug stores your photos in Amazon's cloud storage system. To make sure we deliver your photos super quickly from anywhere around the world, we will pull those photos to a different set of servers based all over the world (called a "CDN") so that the photos can be served to you and your visitors as fast as possible. If we used your custom domain we'd have to skip the CDN and your photos might load slightly slower. We went with the photos.smugmug.com URL's so that your photos would be delivered as fast as possible. There's a lot of research that shows visitors to your page will bounce (leave) if the content doesn't load quick enough and we never want to put your in a place where you would lose your visitors or business because our photos aren't loading fast enough.

We could put the custom domain back, but I'm not sure that all of our customers would also prefer to sacrifice load times just for having a custom domain URL, which their visitors would never see anyways. I'm more than happy to change the URL's if the majority of our customers would prefer the custom domain.

OffTopic · June 6, 2016

leftquark wrote: »

I'd like to understand why it "needs" to use your domain? What is the downside to having it using photos.smugmug.com?

Because I am intentionally creating backlinks to MY site/domain. If I wasn't concerned about that, I could just upload the photos directly to my blog host or anywhere else I might post them.

No biggie, I understand why you did it from the SmugMug hosting point of view, and I'll just continue to manually change the url when I embed a photo offsite.

AndrewW · June 6, 2016

leftquark wrote: »

I'd like to understand why it "needs" to use your domain? What is the downside to having it using photos.smugmug.com?

I'll get into a little technical details but also keep it fairly simplistic: SmugMug stores your photos in Amazon's cloud storage system. To make sure we deliver your photos super quickly from anywhere around the world, we will pull those photos to a different set of servers based all over the world (called a "CDN") so that the photos can be served to you and your visitors as fast as possible. If we used your custom domain we'd have to skip the CDN and your photos might load slightly slower. We went with the photos.smugmug.com URL's so that your photos would be delivered as fast as possible. There's a lot of research that shows visitors to your page will bounce (leave) if the content doesn't load quick enough and we never want to put your in a place where you would lose your visitors or business because our photos aren't loading fast enough.

We could put the custom domain back, but I'm not sure that all of our customers would also prefer to sacrifice load times just for having a custom domain URL, which their visitors would never see anyways. I'm more than happy to change the URL's if the majority of our customers would prefer the custom domain.

I thought custom domains were still routed through the CDN. If I ping domains.smugmug.com (my domain's CName), I get "wc.smugmug.com.cdn.cloudflare.net [198.41.208.118]" in response. I suppose different caching might be happening in your network based on the domain, but I don't see any real reason why that would happen.

For the "need" though, it is branding. Most people won't see the URL, but some will. It also gives someone the option to find the photo owner by checking the hosted domain.

Erick L · June 12, 2016

leftquark wrote: »

I'd like to understand why it "needs" to use your domain? What is the downside to having it using photos.smugmug.com?

Because it refers to Smugmug instead of my domain. If I post a photo somewhere, it now shows on that website and the photo shows at Smugmug. My domain is nowhere to be found. This is not good.

livverlips · August 8, 2016

I shouldn't have to jump through hoops to try to get a link that directs back to my personal domain.

I post links to single images on Facebook all the time, I also post links to animated gifs that I have created. For the animation to automatically load in the Facebook timeline it has to be the direct link to the image.
So if my domain name isn't showing the only reference viewers will have if someone copies and shares my link is smugmug.photos.com

Many times you cannot just simply replace the photos.smugmug.com with your own domain and get the same result.
It appears as though any images that are just in an unlisted folder have to be moved into a gallery for me to be able to get a clickable direct link that functions. After moving the image around I then have to copy a link to my unlisted gallery post in another browser where I'm not logged in and get a direct image link there. This is a pain the rear end and it doesn't always work.

Allen · August 9, 2016

I just noticed if I send someone a link to a photo using "share" they have no clue what my site link is.

I see no difference in photo load using new method or my domain. Just how many nanoseconds is saved per photo?

Ferguson · August 11, 2016

livverlips wrote: »

I
Many times you cannot just simply replace the photos.smugmug.com with your own domain and get the same result.

You must replace the https with http as well, right?

livverlips wrote: »

I
It appears as though any images that are just in an unlisted folder have to be moved into a gallery for me to be able to get a clickable direct link that functions. After moving the image around I then have to copy a link to my unlisted gallery post in another browser where I'm not logged in and get a direct image link there. This is a pain the rear end and it doesn't always work.

Most of my links I post are unlisted galleries (you can't, to my knowledge, have images in a folder, but they must be in a gallery?), and this works fine for me.

You might either post an example here, or send one off to help@smugmug.com, if you are sure it is not working correctly.

I'm not a fan of replacing the domain name manually either, but so far it has seemed to work. I also am finding (or perhaps noticing) more forums where I post are consuming the photo and displaying it from their own servers anyway (i.e. the URL disappears). I don't think nearly most, but quite a few.

livverlips · August 11, 2016

Ferguson wrote: »

You must replace the https with http as well, right?

Yes I did, and still had trouble getting some to work correctly.

tomnovy · August 15, 2016

Hey livverlips,

Have you tried contacting our support heroes about this?

Case1 · August 25, 2016

Note that replacing the https://photos.smugmug.com part of the URL with your custom domain seems to no longer work as of right now. It WILL get you to your photo if you use such link, but the URL automatically resolves back to photos.smugmug.com even before the photo is displayed, so the client basically no longer sees your custom domain at all when displaying the photo.

In other words, it now has the exact same functionality a simple redirect on your domain could do.

Embed code contains photos.smugmug.com instead of custom domain

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