I search stuff out on Google dozens of times a day. In fact, I probably spend more time sifting through Google search results each day than I do eating. It’s that much a part of my day-to-day. So anything Google does to make that job easier or more enjoyable, is always met with a Muppet-esque scream. Yesterday, I had a nice moment when I discovered they’d changed the way they deliver images back to you in an image search. [note: The redesign is being slowly rolled out to all users by the end of the week, and currently only works on PCs running Chrome, Safari, Firefox 3.0 (and up), and Internet Explorer 7 and 8.] If you click here, you’ll see what I mean. The two images below show you the big difference, namely, that all the image info has been stripped off the page, making it easier to browse.
But you can still get the info if you want it by hovering over the photo, like this:
Another nice function, which isn’t entirely new, but new-ish, is that you can browse by size. Need something larger than 1024×768 – use the drop down menu on the left side bar and narrow your search.
All in all, the images pop more than they used to, especially on my brand new 27″ iMac, which gives me more than 2500 pixels in width!
More details from PCMag.com:
When you click on an image result, instead of viewing the originating Web page with a frame at the top, you’ll see a blown up image in the forefront of the screen with the Web page dimmed in the background. To the right of the page you’ll see the URL of the Web page and a link to the full-sized image. In addition to the images dimensions next to the link for the full-sized image is text telling you how much bigger the full-size image is than blown up image shown on the page.
Clicking the “X” on the blown up image will take you directly to the originating Web page. I like this layout better than the framed page used by the older Google images format, because you get a much better idea for the size of the image (plus, you may not want to click on the full-image link). It would also be nice if clicking the image would take you to the image’s position on the originating page—neither the old or new versions of Google Image Search has this ability.
Google managed to display more and larger image results without slowing load times, and made it faster to find images for which you’re searching.
Comments (19)
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hmm is there something you have to click on to get that search method…my browser is still showing it the old way.
posted by Katie Rose on 7-22-2010 at 1:00 pm
I use Firefox 3.6.6 on Ubuntu 10.04 and it bugged the hell out when I used image search this morning.
posted by Stuart L. on 7-22-2010 at 1:03 pm
It’s a lot like Bing now
posted by Yams on 7-22-2010 at 1:04 pm
Same here.
posted by Jeff on 7-22-2010 at 1:04 pm
Katie, see my addition above: The redesign is being slowly rolled out to all users by the end of the week, and currently only works on PCs running Chrome, Safari, Firefox 3.0 (and up), and Internet Explorer 7 and 8.
posted by David K. Israel on 7-22-2010 at 1:06 pm
Ahh, that explains it. I searched images at the end of the work day and it showed the old way. Drove home to continue my searches (I have Firefox on a MAC at home) and got the images the new way. Way cool.
posted by Fran on 7-22-2010 at 1:15 pm
This looks a lot more user friendly. I’m happy to see they are constantly making improvements.
posted by Bobby on 7-22-2010 at 1:28 pm
Thanks for using the example of “colorful flower” as an example. It proved to me right away that I don’t like the new image search. As a horticulturalist I use the image search to identify plants and blooms that I’m not familiar with; generally by description. I can weed past all the flikr and its like-site pictures without info by seeing the website address and get to the meat of what I’m looking for. Now if I have to hover over every picture it could take 50 times longer to get through a page rather than a quick scan with the eyes and on to the next page. Sorry but I DON’T LIKE IT!
posted by Steve S on 7-22-2010 at 1:47 pm
Ah… this one bummed me out because of how quickly the news has been spreading, which also means all the other Google pages in different languages got this feature implemented a lot sooner than previous changes from Google.
I’m not really a big fan of this new image search function.
Anyway, my Google page is set to Taiwan. For some reason, it took Google almost a year for it to finally get video search function, and it took about a couple months or so for the new iGoogle layout to kick in (I hate that Home tab that’s jutting out like a sore thumb on the left side), but this image search feature only came just one day late after all the news I’ve been reading about it!
Bummer, I liked taking pride in having a yet unchanged Google over those using Google in English.
posted by teh yoshi on 7-22-2010 at 2:14 pm
What concerns me is that I already have a hard time trying to teach my students that where they take images from is important. It is important to evaluate your source and give credit to them. This just encourages people to only look at the surface and rip away at the image. Sure, it’s cool to see a big picture, but what are we sacrificing to do that. Critical evaluation of information. The one thing that will truly help us through the Infowhelm age.
posted by Sara on 7-22-2010 at 3:06 pm
Noticed the change yesterday and I’m on the fence.
I agree with the PCmag article that it would be nice to be able to jump to where the image is used on the page by clicking on it.
I think Sara makes a good point too.
posted by Nerak on 7-22-2010 at 5:14 pm
For me at least, google Canada’s image search seems to be the same. I’m hopeful that it will stay this way for at least a little while, as I have to agree with some of the other commenters that I use the web page information as a large part of my image searching, and with it now not immediately available, searches will become less, not more, efficient for me.
posted by kw on 7-22-2010 at 11:00 pm
I noticed that yesterday—love it!
posted by KerriD on 7-22-2010 at 11:49 pm
Weird I am sure that this has been out for weeks on my computer.. Running the latest version of Firefox.
posted by Reese on 7-23-2010 at 8:39 am
I liked the website being shown on the front page better because that way I know right off if it’s going to be somewhere I can/should copy it from. Especially when I’m grabbing pics for my business’s website, I don’t want to steal stock photos that aren’t supposed to be free, the photographic work of people that might not want it to be used commercially,etc.
posted by Melissa on 7-23-2010 at 2:38 pm
Google, WE DO NOT LIKE BING. We use google for a reason. If we liked crap like this, we wouldn’t be using your search engine. Any time a large company ‘upgrades’ their website, it just means ‘we added more crap, its harder to use now but our marketing execs love it’. Doubt it? Other examples: cnn.com, bbc.co.uk, yahoo.com, weather.com, need I continue?
posted by Bob on 7-25-2010 at 6:14 pm
Google don’t copy the bad ideas. I need the url when I search the images if I’ve to put the mouse in every image I’m wasting a lot of times. I don’t like it and at least this must be configurable
posted by Luis on 7-28-2010 at 11:23 am
not good . hate it . please change back.
posted by lola on 7-30-2010 at 1:26 am
Its not bad but it makes the image search super slow as hell on my PC.. It gives me couple of hundred images at once and there’s nothing you can do about it. Google should give a choice between the old version and the new, not everybody has a fast internet connection especially so many users nowdays use mobile devices to look at internet. Im starting to use Yahoo from today..
posted by Ray on 8-12-2010 at 2:01 am