Google now lets you search your private photos and the photos your friends on Google+ share with you. All you need to do is search on Google for keywords such as [my photos] or [my photos sunset] to bring up matching photos. You can even search for your friend's photos such as [danny's photos sunset] or [matt’s photos of food]. Note, Google explains that they use "computer vision and machine learning to help recognize more general concepts in your photos such as sunsets, food and flowers." So this appears like it will get better over time, as it is used more and more by searchers. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Search | Google: Google+ | Google: Images

Add this to the big list of Google easter eggs: do an image search for "atari breakout," and you'll be able to play the classic video game online, right in your search results. In fact, the image search results become the bricks that you have to eliminate as you play the game. Google is calling the game "Image Breakout." You can use your mouse or the arrow keys on your keyboard to control your paddle, and when you've used up all five chances, you can share your score on Google+. I'm not sure who reported/discovered this first (if it matters); TechCrunch, which may have been first [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google | Google: Easter Eggs | Google: Images

Google appears to be trying on a new look for its related image search interface. While the standard interface for related image searches includes a list of the related image queries that only show image thumbnails when you mouse over the related search query term, the new interface shows a collection of images right above the related search query terms.   By clicking a related search option, Google displays an addition box similar to the black box users see when clicking on an image search result. (Image credit: Google Operating System Blog) [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images | Google: User Interface

Define Media Group released statistics from 87 different websites on the images the new Google Image Search design features have impacted on publishers websites. Overall, sites in the study saw an average decline of 63% of their traffic from Google Image Search. Industries hit the hardest, according to the report, were Fashion & Lifestyle, Entertainment, News and Photo verticals seeing about a 78% decline in Google Image Search traffic. Google will likely say the decline is due to a decline in "phantom visits" where publishers counted impressions in the old design even when the searc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images | Top News

Findings from a new study show the visibility of Google Shopping in Google's "Universal Search" results dropped significantly after the search engine implemented a new paid inclusion model. Video content also dropped but still remained by far the most dominant source mixed with web page listings. Searchmetrics, a provider of search and social analysis software, conducted the study by analyzing millions of listings to evaluate Universal Search results for videos, images, maps, shopping and news. Google implemented Universal Search in 2007 to offer an improved search experience for users [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Google: Images | Google: Maps & Local | Google: News | Google: Product Search | Google: Universal Search | Google: YouTube & Video | Top News

Animated GIFs have been making a comeback, particularly since Google+ gave them support when it launched, not to mention Tumblr. So, no surprise, Google's now pushing a new way to find GIFs within Google Image Search. Google posted the news today on Google+, explaining that a new "Animated" option is available for those who search on Google Image Search: "Starting today, there’s an easier way to unearth those gems: when you do an image search, click on “Search tools” below the search box, then select “Animated” under the “Any type” dropdown box." You can see the option [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images | Top News

Like how Google Image Search works on a tablet? Good news, then. That simplified experience is coming to Google Images on the desktop. Out With The Old Currently, viewing an image through Google Image Search is a multistep process. You do the search, see several images and can hover to get a slightly larger thumbnail: If you want to see a larger version of the image, you have to click on the image, which brings up a bigger version superimposed over the actual web page the image is from: In With The New With the new system that's coming out today, selecting an image after a search br [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Features: Analysis | Google: Images | Top News

The most popular search engine in China, Baidu, is reportedly working on a new image search feature for facial recognition. Searchers can upload an image of a face and Baidu will try to return other photos of the same person, with information on the name of the person. There are reports that the feature works well with celebrities but not unknown or not-well known people. I tested this with my own image and it does return a match for me. Google does have a similar feature named Search By Image that has been around since June of 2011. Google also does have a feature in Google+ named [...]

Related Topics: Baidu | Channel: Search | Google: Images | Search Engines: Photo & Image Search

Google has changed the default behavior of their image search to work similarly to how web search works. Now when you search for less explicit search terms while in image search, Google is more likely to filter out explicit images and set your default SafeSearch filter to the on position. When I searched for the keyword [porn] in Google Image Search I was prompted with this warning to "Use the SafeSearch menu to filter explicit results." It knew I searched for something explicit and was educating me on how to remove those results. Prior, Google didn't give such a warning, instead the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images

Google has been told to pay the equivalent of $208,000 (USD) after recently losing a defamation case in Australia involving how it showed a 62-year-old man's name in search results. Google is examining the original jury verdict and may file an appeal. A judge in the supreme court of the Australian state Victoria issued the fine today and, according to Phys.org, compared Google's search results to that of an online publisher: Google Inc is like the newsagent that sells a newspaper containing a defamatory article," Beach said in his judgement. "While there might be no specific intention to [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Images | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Google: Web Search | Legal: Censorship | Legal: Privacy | Top News

Both Google Maps Mania and the Google Earth Blog are reporting that Google has started to post-Sandysatellite imagery showing the destruction in New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Specifically, via the Google Crisis Map, you can select these areas for post-Sandy Imagery: Beach Haven to Cape May, NJ Spring Lake to Harvey Cedars, NJ Little Assawoman Bay, DE to Assateague Island, MD The satellite images can also be downloaded as a KML file to use with Google Earth. The imagery was captured yesterday (October 31, 2012) by the NOAA-National Geodetic Survey. The Google Crisis [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images

Google is awaiting a judge's decision on damages before it decides what to do after losing a defamation case over its search results in Australia. A jury in the supreme court of the Australian state Victoria, ruled Tuesday that Google is liable for defamation because its search results connected the plaintiff, 62-year-old Milorad Trkulja, to phrases such as "Melbourne crime" and showed his photo near images of suspected members of Melbourne's organized crime scene. It's a complicated and strange case that the BBC details well. In short, my summary would go like this: the plaintiff wa [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Images | Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Google: Web Search | Legal: Censorship | Legal: Privacy | Top News

I don't know what images were showing up for a "binders full of women" search on Google Images before last night's US presidential debate. But today, they're dominated by a meme started from a comment last night by Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Romney was commenting that he sought to increase the number of women in his cabinet as governor of Massachusetts by asking for more women candidates. As a result, he was delivered "binders full of women" to review. While some are now questioning the story, others are taking part in a new meme, making pictures poking fun at the idea of "binder [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Features: Analysis | Google: Images | Link Building: Link Bombs | Search & Society: General | Top News

Google announced that they have made a few improvements to Search by Image on Google Image search. The improvements include enhancing the best guesses, adding the knowledge graph to image results and adding fresher content to the image search results. Smart Best Guesses For Search By Image Now if you search by image, Google will try to be smarter about the best guess answer they give you. For example, if you uploaded an image of a specific type of flower, previously Google would say it was flower. Now Google will try to guess the type of flower. Here is a picture: Knowle [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images

Google announced the related search links at the top of the Google Images search results are now visually appealing. You can now mouse over the related search phrase and Google will hover open an image preview of what the first three images look like for that image search query. Here is an example of searching for [greece] and hovering my mouse cursor over the related search phrase [santorini greece]: You can click on the image for a larger preview. Google is rolling this new feature out over the "next few weeks." Related Stories: Google Images Carousel For Tablets & [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images

Google announced two new improvements to mobile interfaces. The first is a new look for image results on tablets called the image carousel and the second is better movie results on Android and iPhone devices. Tablet Image Carousel: When you use Google Images on tablet devices including iOS or Android tablet’s browsers, and then click on an image, you will see the new image carousel feature. It is very similar to the smart phone experience from April, where you can swipe through images or click the arrows through images. It is also similar to the feature on the Google iPad app. He [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Images | Google: Mobile

Google just posted about ten new algorithm changes it has made to how it shows and ranks search results. These include showing rich snippets more often, improving the quality of snippets, a better way of showing page titles for times when Google ignores the HTML title tag itself and a ranking boost for "official pages," which Google says it can detect better now. Snippets & Page Titles Below are changes related to snippets -- the descriptions that Google shows for web pages -- and page titles. I've quoted from the Google blog post, where that's appropriate and paraphrased in other cases [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Images | Google: Rich Snippets | Google: SEO | Google: Web Search | Schema.org | Top News

An anonymous reader sent us a tip that searching for [gmail] using the Google "Photos" option will return a lot of pictures of women not fully dressed. I was able to replicate the problem images by going to Google, searching for [gmail], clicking on the "more" option and selecting "Photos," as you can see below: After you click photos, you are presented with many images of women that are not fully pornographic, but most likely not safe for work. Here is an uncensored image: The "Photos" option pulls back images from the Google Picasa photo sharing service, as opposed to the mo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images | Google: Picasa | Top News

This week, several webmasters at WebmasterWorld noticed that the results in Google Images seemed to surface the original source of the images more of the time than it did in the past. I wrote about this at the Search Engine Roundtable as Google Images possibly improving their image source detection algorithm, but it is more. A Google spokesperson they have launched a new update for Google Images that improved relevance and quality. Google told me: We've recently launched an update to the algorithm that looks at the relevance and quality of both the webpage and the image to surface [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Images | Google: SEO

Google has recently been emphasizing current/fresh images in its image search product, and that effort continued today with the announcement of a new time-based filter. And unannounced is the re-appearance of other filters that went missing in Google's recent redesign. Let's start with the new filter: Among the image search filters in the left-side column is a new "Past week" option that surfaces recent photos added to Google's image search index. You can see it at the bottom of this screenshot: Meanwhile, up above that filter are options to filter image by Type (face, photo, clip ar [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images