As part of releasing a new design and search options last week, Google also added a new search filter named "sites with images" this week that it has spotlighted on the Google Blog. To activate the search filter, conduct an image related search at Google, and then click on the link under "All results" named "Sites with images. An example query that works is Salt ponds, here is a screen capture of the filter link: After you click it, the results will show sites with images and contain a row of images above the search results, with a title, snippet and the number of images that matched [...]

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

Another day, another new and/or improved search tool from Google. Yesterday it was an improved mobile version of Place Pages, and today's announcement is an upgrade to Google's mobile image search for iPhones and Android devices. The changes include showing square thumbnails to maximize the number that appear after a search, swipe-based navigation (like iPhone users will already be familiar with), larger single-image views, and a black background to emphasize single images. Google says this upgrade is available now in 38 languages. [...]

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

The Google Webmaster Central Blog announced that you can use a Sitemaps extension to provide image data to Google. In the Sitemaps file you can specify the following properties of the images; image, location, caption, geographic location, title and license details. More technical specifications can be seen over here and here is a sample Google gives: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>  <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"   xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1"> [...]

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

Google confirmed two different discussions taking place in the webmaster and SEO community over the past few days. The first is that MySpace results are now included in Google's Real Time search results feature. In addition, Google launched real-time search in Russian and Japanese. The second is that Google has updated their site command for Google Image searches. Now, if you search for images on a site, using site:domain.com, Google will show you the images on the web pages on that domain, and ignore the host of that image. Here is how Google explained it: Based on feedback fro [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images | Google: Real Time Search | Google: Web Search | Top News

The Google Mobile Blog announced that Google has added "popular images" to their images home page on Android, iPhone, Palm and other smart phone devices. When you visit Google Images on those devices, you now see "popular images" and a link to browse more popular images. Here is the home page: After clicking on the link, you get popular images broken down by category. The categories include trends, movies, sports, cars & bikes, television, cartoons and music. Here is a picture of the images currently in the popular trends category: [...]

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

The Wall Street Journal noted that Google has purchased search ads for queries done on Google.com for "Google Leaves China" or "Google vs. Baidu." Clearly, Google wants people to read their position on the recent move for them ending the censorship of Google China. Here is a picture of the ad: Google, on occasion, will buy search ads to explain why the search results are a certain way. Here, they are explaining why Google China is no longer censored, but previously they have purchased ads for why an offensive image of Michelle Obama appeared on Google Images. They have also purcha [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Business Issues | Google: Critics | Google: Images | Legal: Censorship | Search Engines: China Search Engines | Top News

Last week, I was surprised to find an image of a woman in a thong within a Google search ad. I asked Google if such ads were acceptable, and Google told me they were. These images came from product extensions that were showing up in the search results for a while now. Apparently, Google reviews images to make sure they are family safe and if they are not, they are removed. Google told me, "Images in ads are only classified as non-family safe when they are found to contain adult content." Google has created a help page specifically to address preventing seeing such images in your ads. Th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Images

Google is testing a new interface for their Image Search feature. The interface allows you to see an infinite number of image results in the search results, simply by scrolling. This works similar to how Bing Image Search currently works, where you do not have to use the pagination to see more results. Instead, the page will dynamically load more images as you scroll down through the results. A Google spokesperson confirmed this test, telling me: We're continually testing new interfaces and features to enhance the user experience. What you describe below was one such test, which only a [...]

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

Google Goggles, which I wrote about this morning, is actually now live at google.com/mobile/goggles. The Google Mobile Blog announced it, saying: In a nutshell, Goggles lets users search for objects using images rather than words. Simply take a picture with your phone's camera, and if we recognize the item, Goggles returns relevant search results. Right now Goggles identifies landmarks, works of art, and products (among other things), and in all cases its ability to "see further" is rooted in powerful computing, pervasive connectivity, and the cloud. Here is a video explaining this featur [...]

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

When I was watching the CNBC Inside the Mind of Google, Google revealed a 'secret' project under the cover at Google named "Google Goggles." Google Goggles is new search feature Google is working on that allows searchers to take a picture and ask Google, what is this picture about. Basically a way to snap a picture on your camera, upload it to Google and Google returns search results that are relevant to the picture. I am not sure how far along this project is. According to the CNBC show, Google was testing this internally with all the Google employees. After those tests, Google was not [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Images | Google: Mobile | Google: Web Search | Top News

In a brief blog post this afternoon, Google has introduced a new layout for displaying images in universal search results on Google.com. Rather than a single row of equal-sized images, some searches may produce a single, supersized image next to two rows of regularly-sized images. Here's what the image results look like currently on a search for [ocelot]: And here's how the new display will look on the same search: Google says it will use the new display when they're "confident that we have great image results." Look for the new display to roll out over the next 24 hours. [...]

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

Google is buying ads to explain why an offensive image of the First Lady is back in its index and ranking so highly on searches for Michelle Obama in Google Image Search. As we reported last week, Google had originally removed the Michelle Obama image on the grounds that the site hosting the image violated Google's guidelines by serving malware to visitors. But the same image remained available on other sites that hadn't run afoul of the rules. Google's ad, shown above, leads searchers to http://www.google.com/resultsinfo.html, which apologizes to users who've "had an upsetting experienc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Did You Know? | Features: Analysis | Google: Images | Legal: Censorship | Top News

Saying the host site was serving malware to users, Google has removed a controversial photo of First Lady Michelle Obama from Google Image Search. The site itself, however, remains listed in Google web search results without any visible malware warning. Welcome to the murky world of free speech, politics, and Google. It began last week, when Search Engine Roundtable pointed out a racist image showing as the number one result in Google Image Search for the term [Michelle Obama]. The image was apparently removed yesterday. In a Google Web Search Help Forum thread discussing the image, a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Did You Know? | Google: Critics | Google: Images | Legal: Censorship | Top News

The newest addition to Google Labs is a mashup of Google Images, Google Similar Images and the visual query refinement tool, the Google Wonder Wheel. Called Google Image Swirl, the new tool clusters similar images based on characteristics found in both the text surrounding images, as well as using some of the visual analysis techniques that I wrote about in Google Adds Search By Similarity To Image Search back in April. Image Swirl results look a lot like the thumbnails presented in regular image search results, but you can see that there are many images stacked behind the topmost result. [...]

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

Six months ago, Google released an image search labs project that allowed you to search by similarity within image search. Google announced that they have promoted that labs project as a default feature in Google Image Search. Now when you search on Google Images, you may often find a link under the image that says, "Find similar images." When you click that link, Google will show you images that look similar to the image you were looking at. Here is a picture of how that link looks: I personally tried it this morning, but for some reason, non of the example searches work, nor d [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images

Google Operating System spotted two new Google search options including custom date ranges web search and advanced image searches directly on the left side navigation. When Google first launched search refinements in the "search options" section, they did not allow you to add a custom date range. Now you can, here is a picture: It also seems like Google is testing the "search options" feature for image search. I personally do not see it on my computers, but Google Operating System took a screen shot: Postscript: Later on today, Google officially announced the addition of sea [...]

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

If you go to Google Images and search on a keyword, and then click on new SafeSearch filter drop down (might only work on a PC), you will see a new way of reporting offensive images. A drop down lets you select, "report offensive images." Here is a picture: When you click it, the page changes, to give you check boxes and a way to report several images as offensive. Here is a picture of that page: This does help people report several images at once. It does not seem to work for me on any Mac browser. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images

Google Operating System, like always, spots that Google has added the creative commons filter to the advanced image search page. In June, Google added the filter through advanced URL parameters, but now it is officially added to the advanced search page. Here is a screen capture of the filter options, but you can learn more on usage rights here. Yahoo added the same type of filter back in May. Postscript: Google has now posted about this new image search feature. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images

Google Image Search has made it a bit easier to toggle between the three levels of SafeSearch. SafeSearch is the adult image filter Google uses to help prevent adult content from showing up in the image search results. The new toggle switch allows you to click on the filter type and then select from a contextual drop down menu to make the filter moderate, strict or turn it off. Here is a picture: I believe the first to write about this was Google Blogoscoped, yesterday at about 3:30 pm (EST). [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images

When most of us travel, we like to visit famous landmarks in the area we're touring. It's easy to find famous landmarks, like the Eiffel Tower or the Great Pyramid, but can be difficult to find lesser known sites. And for armchair travelers, it can take time to search for images of landmarks even with powerful image search tools that use GPS tagged photos or offer virtual tours. A group of researchers from Google and the National University of Singapore have helped solve this problem, by building a "web-scale landmark recognition engine." They're presenting a report on their work today at t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Images