- Image search
Image search (or image search engine) is a type of
search engine specialised on finding pictures, images,animation s etc. Like the text search, image search is aninformation retrieval system designed to help to find information on the Internet and it allows the user to look for images etc. usingkeyword s or search phrases and to receive a set of thumbnail images, sorted by relevancy.Specialized search engines, like in the fields of image search, are among the fastest growing search services on the internet. In 2005 alone the number of image searches increased by 91% (Nielsen/NetRatings 2006-03-31).
Many of the sites that today offer image search use a service powered by one of the big three; Google,
Picsearch orYahoo .How image search works
A common misunderstanding when it comes to image search is that the technology is based on detecting information in the image itself. But most image search works as other
search engine s. Themetadata of the image is indexed and stored in a large database and when a searchquery is performed the image search engine looks up the index, and queries are matched with the stored information. The results are presented in order of relevancy. The usefulness of an image search engine depends on the relevance of the results it returns, and the ranking algorithms are one of the keys to becoming a big player.When performing a search the user receives a set of thumbnail images, sorted by relevancy. Each thumbnail is a link back to the original web site where that image is located. Using an advanced search option the user can typically adjust the search criteria to fit their own needs, choosing to search only images or animations, color or black&white, and setting preferences on image size.
Image search providers
*
AltaVista
*Google Image Search
*Yahoo! Image Search
*Live Search fromMicrosoft
*Picsearch
*StockPhotoFinder
*Pixsta
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
