Google is testing new image search facility

June 26 2001

Google is beta testing a new image search feature. It can be accessed through the page for advanced searching.

According to Google Google's Image Search is the most comprehensive on the Web, with more than 150 million images indexed and available for viewing.

When searching for images you will get up to 20 thumbnail images on the results page. You click the thumbnail to see a larger version of the image, as well as the web page on which the image is located.

Google warns visitors that the results may contain adult content:

"Google considers a number of factors when determining whether an image is relevant to your search request. Because these methods are not entirely foolproof, it's possible some inappropriate pictures may be included among the images you see."

The adult content filter is on by default, but it works only in English.

The Google spiders are, like most computers, unable to interpret pictures. Instead Google analyzes the text on the page adjacent to the image, the image caption and dozens of other factors to determine the image content.

To limit your search to a specific type of image file, you may use the following syntax:

search keyword(s) filetype:[image filetype extension]

For [image filetype extension] replace jpg, gif, jpeg, png etc.

You can use all operators for image search that you would use in a Google text search. For example, you can use the site: operator to restrict your searches to pictures from a particular website.

Google Image Search
Google on the new image search feature
Google Image FAQ

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