I'm finally digging through the pile of email I was avoiding over the holidays and discovered a site redesign notice from iStockphoto. On Monday, January 9th, they'll be launching version 8, a completely new, AJAX-infused site including reorganized categories, extended licenses, a new pricing structure and a new tool I'm interested in checking out: BuyRequest. This handy new addition will allow you to post image requests for a finder's fee, naming your own price or even listing your creative budget and sifting through submissions. The one thing I'm glad they got rid of: the gallery. Call me what you have to, but I've always been annoyed at stock sites that offer the confusing and conflicting options of both a lightbox and a gallery. Fortunately, I'm not the only one, and they simply decided to slim down to a lightbox system. Gallery-b-gone!

So swing on by iStockphoto (no this isn't a paid plug) on 1/9 for what sounds to be some nice new stock image goodness.