images.google.com 147
Ever since Scour faded from the surface of the net, finding a good source of images has been tought to do. Fortunately Google has stepped up to the plate by working on an Image Search Engine. A variety of people submitted it, and although it is in beta testing, it seems quite functional and very cool.
Re:Tried it, liked it. (Score:1)
-Wade
it's wonderful (Score:1)
I wish you could search by stuff besides keywords (Score:2)
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Re:IStockPhoto.com (Score:2)
Filenames (Score:2)
Also if Google uses 'alt text' to help the search, that's another good reason to add it to your images.
I wonder whether they will apply the page-ranking algorithm to client-side imagemaps with 'label' text?
Re:Thumbnails (Score:2)
If they're currently generating thumbnails on the fly, it wouldn't be any slower to generate them a bit smaller. If they're currently saving the thumbnails to disk, a complementary set of extra-small thumbnails would take hardly any extra disk space (perhaps 20% as much).
Thumbnails (Score:3)
Try entering "Bill Gates" (Score:5)
Cool ... if you ask for pictures of Bill Gates,
the top two lines have several versions of the
mug shot from when he was busted in New Mexico
in his early 20s.
Not happy Jan :( (Score:1)
Not everyone likes it. (Score:2)
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Re:Previews of Images != Good (Score:1)
Re:Google's following Yahoo (Score:2)
most cool (Score:1)
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Doesn't work well -- and that's a good thing (Score:2)
In the meantime, I love the inefficiencies of image search engines, because it let's you play an oftentimes hilarious random association game. Because Google's engine relies on text info including file names and nearby captions and other content, the mix of things it thinks applies to your search term can be inadvertently very entertaining.
Re:Video Store Raided For Selling Imported DVDs (Score:1)
Didn't get posted? Boo-hoo. Try kuro5hin.org instead.
Cheers,
Tim
Re:Only English (Score:2)
Cheers,
Tim
Re:Bet this dies soon (Score:3)
They might be a little miffed that this will make it easier for people to find the stuff they want for free, but so what? Them's the breaks; if you charge people for something they can get for free elsewhere, don't expect to make too much money.
Cheers,
Tim
Re:Useful for Slashdotters (Score:2)
And Lycos? (Score:2)
Re:Holy shaved ****, Batman! (Score:1)
It really sucks. (Score:1)
It is allmost impsible to find any good porn!
I have tried sex,nude,xxx only when I searched
for hardcore did I find a few good pictures
Knud
Re:Tried it, liked it. (Score:2)
Try searching for cmdrtaco, I laughed my ass off at some of the stuff.
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Only English (Score:1)
So far for borderless Internet...
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Re:Only English (Score:1)
BTW, have you tried the newly added languages? Hacker, Bork, Bork!, and more ... quite +1, Funny
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Some ideas (Score:2)
Another suggestion that is easy to implement - make it possible to search for files in a certain format only. JPEG is typically used for photos, so you will get much less graphics if you restrict your search to JPEG (or vice versa).
An additional service that comes to mind is OCR - for several topics I found a surprisingly large number of newspaper scans. Google could use the text detected in the image to even further increase the search quality.
Also, I hope they're using meta data. It's not there very often, but all major file formats (JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF) have the ability to store text or even more finegrained information (date, location, etc., think of JPEG/EXIF).
A more complex extension would be query by example. You send up an image, they list images that look the same. This is much more powerful than mere text, but it works in a very different way.
Re:useless, or not? (Score:1)
I'm not sure if that is a slam against images.google.com or a validation of the value of the lint trap like quality of the mind of the
Google has other search engines... (Score:2)
There is also a Google Linux Search Engine [google.com] (even a penguin logo)
There's also a Google BSD Search Engine [google.com] (with daemon) and a Google Apple Mac Search Engine [google.com] (with fruity colors) too.
Surprisingly absent (or not!?) is a search engine for that other [google.com] operating system...
Re:Too Many Clicks (Score:1)
Re:useless, or not? (Score:1)
presence of a poster (Score:2)
useless, or not? (Score:5)
The first search was for "dog on a bike" just to look for a very obscure and odd picture item. Lo and behold, the 15th or so picture is of a dog sitting on a motorcycle. I was really excited at how well it worked. The rest were pictures of either dogs and/or bikes, which is understandable.
Next search was for "standing in the rain" to find a common picture of a specific scenario. The results were not so good. I did find pictures of people standing in the rain, but I found more drawings and things that had nothing to do with rain.
Next I played around with the 'mature content filter' and searched for "bath tub." I got about 20000 pictures of bath tubs and showers and the like, but not one porn pic. Although I guess this is good if you're shopping for bath tubs, it did miss a large segment of people looking for pics of women in a bath tub. I'm sure if you did a search for "hardcore porn", you'd find hardcore porn, but I'm at work and I'd get in trouble for doing that.
The final search was for a SPECIFIC picture that would make this search engine pretty useful. My father is looking for the poster of Barney Fife sitting on a big motorcycle. It's a funny poster, but we haven't found it anywhere (I have found the picture at some sites, just not the poster). I did multiple searches for "barney fife," "fife bike," "fife motorcycle," barney motorcycle,"... you get the picture. Almost every picture that came up was a banner-ad type picture advertising different websites. Only when I searched for just "barney fife" did I find pictures of barney fife. Otherwise, I would ONLY get little icons and other useless graphics. No motorcycles or barneys at all. I even got a graphic for an anti-DVD website.
The useless graphics and icons were prevalent in every search I did. I'm guessing if you're searching for a graphic of something like a smiley face, this would be helpful. Otherwise, it was only marginally interesting.
Re:IStockPhoto.com (Score:2)
I might as well provide Taco with a link to help him out. KaZaA [kazaa.com] (despite the gay name) has all the functionality of scour, plus some.
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Caimlas
Jeez, that didn't take long (Score:1)
So, when will google.com be filtered by CyberCensorNetMommy?
Re:Bet this dies soon (Score:2)
I just took three minutes and found something I could use...
Re:IStockPhoto.com (Score:1)
Re:Well, what you can you say? (Score:1)
Re:Google's following Yahoo (Score:3)
Much as I loathe adult filters, I wish they had one for this service, just so I don't get the random fellatio image on my screen at work.
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Like (Score:5)
With altavista.com, you have to go to the actual web page, which sometimes doesn't even have the iamge. I'm assuming its because the web page in question has changed over time(since it was last indexed by altavista), or is such a heavily dynamic website, you'll have to scrounge thru the site to get it.
With google, it's just TWO clicks away to steal someone else's work. I'm happy. Again, google rules for search engines.
it's a wonderful (Score:1)
IMG="this" ALT="description" (Score:1)
It would also encourage people to propagate their web pages with meaningful descriptions.
fast.no has had one for a long time (Score:1)
Re:Bet this dies soon (Score:1)
Try these other services. (Score:3)
Corbis [corbis.com]
Ditto.com [ditto.com]
Lycos [lycos.com]
Photos To Go [photostogo.com]
Diggit! [diggit.com]
Re:useless, or not? (Score:2)
When entering the phrase "gang bang", these are two of the images on the first page of results:
http://www.fatfrogproaudio.com/images/sat_trucks.
http://www.uio.no/~johanjp/sorgenfri/bilder/sorte
Makes ya think, no?
nlh
interesting ramifications (Score:2)
I've been wanting to write an open sourced image search engine for a long time, I guess that now I can just try to join the google team.
One idea that I had was to use optical character recognition (like many scanners do) to pull out possible words... much like the portrayal of Neo when he was searching for Morpheus.
This is a technology that can widely expand the usefulness of searching tools, but can also invade people's privacy. Let's say that your local paper publishes your photo... now anyone in the world can see what you look like.
Re:useless, or not? (Score:2)
http://usaclassics.com/graphics/mayberry_collectio n/mugbarneyssidecar.jpg [usaclassics.com]
Re:This is news? (Score:1)
Well CreativePro.com didn't work for me either, but fontsearch did.
However the images or fonts returned by those sites are not free, you have to purchase the files. Those 2 sites are really a bunch of crap, for commercial images, use Corbis [corbis.com] or Associated Press [accuweather.com] instead !
Re:Well, what you can you say? (Score:1)
Re:Well, what you can you say? (Score:1)
Things they could do to boost hits include
1) Give their images salacious filenames/alt tages
2) Give their images innocuous, but popular filenames/alt tags
Things they could do to hide their images:
1) Give their images names like 1.jpg 2.jpg etc.
Very cool, but what about copyrights? (Score:2)
I'd love to use some of the images I found right away, but know that I probably shouldn't, or that at least I should research each one individually and try to find out what its appropriate use/copyright status is. But Most People(tm) won't do that, and I wonder if this is going to lead to some kind of Napster-like backlash.
Maybe we need to develop an XML "copyright_status='public-domain'" attribute for images, and try to get people to use it? (Sure, that'll happen.)
TomatoMan
Re:Thumbnails (Score:2)
TomatoMan
Re:Like (Score:2)
Unless, of course, you have Bork Bork Bork selected as your language. Possibly other foreign languages. In which case the search from images.google.com becomes a regular google search. Beta it is.
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First thing to look for is... (Score:1)
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I don't think so. (Score:2)
Webcore Labs arbitrairlly limits distribution at it's sole discretion.
Webcore Labs arbitrairlly limits use at it's sole discretion.
The software is not free because:
It may not be used for any purpose, at the discretion of Webcore Labs.
It may not be transfered without Webcore Labs permision.
It almost certianly can not be modified.
It would be unwise to include use any of their images without modification. I prefer to make my own images when I need them or use truely free images.
Prohibition of sale != GPL. Sell what you want, just distribute the source code and don't tell people what they can and can not do with their computers.
Thank you for presenting this piece of their liscence. I don't agree with the way they like to share things.
What goes around comes around, I guess... (Score:2)
People are submitting what they saw on "The Screensavers" last nite? Mercy. I thought Slashdot drove their content, not the other way around.
What's next? Barking cats?
So long ditto.com (Score:1)
As fast as Google is (even under the slashdot effect), I think I just visited Ditto for the last time.
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IStockPhoto.com (Score:4)
Beware tpb
Re:Bet this dies soon (Score:1)
Maybe you can't understand that I'm talking economics here. The same economics that drove the VCR industry, for instance.
Ah, that's what I get for reading AC posts.
Bet this dies soon (Score:2)
The commercial porn websites won't like it, and Google will have a hard time justifying this service for hunting down porn. I just don't see it making financial sense. (something Google is pretty good at understanding)
So in other words, grab all the pics you can now.
Try Ditto (Score:2)
Google is amazing, and I'm sure that their search will be better eventually (if it isn't already), but this is a difficult field, and it's nice to have options. Give them a look.
"We all say so, so it must be true!"
Cache (Score:2)
Enter your Slashdot username into images.google.co (Score:1)
google has good betas... (Score:1)
NO!!! (Score:1)
Think of all the hot chicks that are going to look me up and go "ewww, nasty"!
http://images.google.com/images?q=jason+milliron
-jason m
alltheweb.com has better image search (Score:1)
Asim
Re:Google's following Yahoo (Score:1)
Great start, but... (Score:1)
Altavista has a search. (Score:1)
D
Mad Scientists with too much time on thier hands
Oh dear... the Kerslappage is HUGE. (Score:2)
Imagine what you could find for "CmdrTaco" or "JonKatz" through this amazing search engine? Naked photos? Embarassing drunken pee-pee shots? Oh yes. All this and more....
Great! (Score:2)
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Go-ogle! an image search engine, huh? (Score:1)
Let's see... (Score:1)
"more evil than satan himself"
darn.
Re:Like (Score:1)
I've been using Google Image for a couple of days now, and can tell you that this still happens. Google will give you a thumbnail, but to get the full size image, you still have to get it from the site.
Re:useless, or not? (Score:1)
Re:presence of a poster (Score:1)
Re:Bet this dies soon (Score:1)
Hmm. Probably 90% of the searches on this will be porn. Seriously, how often do you want to search for some other specific picture?
I dunno about 90% - there are sex search engines out there. Afterall, if there is a demand for a site someone will build it and put an ad banner up on it.
I personally will find it useful - both work and otherwise.
Re:useless, or not? (Score:1)
I was wondering about the 'porn' factor, so I tried
"blue footed booby"
"bird english tit"
"fist"
Each time, I got at least a couple of images of what I was looking for and no porn. That makes it good enough for work usage, in my books.
Mature content filter (Score:1)
Beta Testing + Slashdotted (Score:1)
Re:Try entering "Bill Gates" (Score:1)
Steven
Tried it, liked it. (Score:2)
Recognizing images by their name is rather inaccurate though, I wonder if there's some manual editing involved, or if they use ImageMagick or something to try and determine the pictures contents by pattern matching ;) (more than 40% greens == probably a landscape photo...)
Re:Google's following Yahoo (Score:2)
They do have an adult filter in place, on the search result page it would appear where you can see the results without it on. Obviously it's not perfected, though.
CmdrTaco Search Result! (Score:2)
-- .sig are belong to us!
All your
Amazingling... (Score:2)
Most annoying is that it finds a mess of images with weirdo domain names my DNS has never heard of (and it's heard of a _lot_!)
-- .sig are belong to us!
All your
ha ha! (Score:2)
Click and vote him UP!!!
Too Many Clicks (Score:2)
Useful for Slashdotters (Score:2)
=-=-=-=-=
This is very cool (Score:2)
Re:Well, what you can you say? (Score:2)
Re:What goes around comes around, I guess... (Score:2)
Re:Great! (Score:2)
I did a search for "Teddy Bear". In other search engines the image has to have "Teddy" or "Bear" in the file name. This has returned accurate and useful results for files named "Bruno.jpg", "14b483eev.jpg", "Tbb1.gif", and "cinamonted.gif".
I have never seen a search engine that was USEFUL in any manner for image searching without the filename EXCLUSIVELY having one of the search terms. All alternately named files are never returned.
Google, you are still the best!
(Now drop those stupid "common word" exclusions if they are in quotes. That is a really dumb way to make the search engine less useful.)
slllllooooooowwwwwww? (Score:2)
I'm hoping that they're having temporary server problems or something; I've really come to love the "Found 123,456,789 results in 0.11 seconds" speed; a server (okay, a massive cluster of them) can find thousands and thousands of links, put them in dynamically generated webpages, and send them to me, on teh opposite side of teh US - in less time than it takes me to read my hard drive!
Hehe, searching for things like "bob" produces interesting results; it's pictures of a ton of people named Bob. And a hand coming out of an apple...
________________________________________________
no link? (Score:2)
___
Re:IStockPhoto.com (Score:2)
From their licence [istockphoto.com]:
It is prohibited to rent, transfer, distribute or grant any rights in the software, the images contained within the archive and/or the accompanying documentation in any form to any person without the written consent of Webcore Labs Inc., prior to the act.
Scary (Score:2)
Not sure I like that at all.
Re:Google's following Yahoo (Score:2)
The cunt coloring book was my favorite.
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What's the big deal ? (Score:2)
Re:This is news? (Score:2)
I think the point is that the Google service is searching the whole web (well, as much as it can) for images rather than an archive of stock images.
Well, what you can you say? (Score:2)
No, wait. Too obvious.
This is cool - almost as cool as FTP search engines [ftpsearchengines.com]. I'm really surprised it's taken this long for another search engine to replicate scour, given the drive to differentiate yourself from all the other search engines out there.
Picturefuse.com - similar to opendirectory project (Score:2)