Live Image Search advances
- Posted: Apr 30, 2007 at 11:46 AM
- 88 Views
- 13 Comments
The image search team at Microsoft deserves a day off, the latest release of enhancements really sets Live Search apart from the others. But don't take my word for it, here, try it for yourself. Go ahead and image search "Red Roses" using Live Search, Yahoo! Image Search, and Google Images. I'll wait here.
All the images in the Live Search have been given a uniform size, making it cleaner looking and easier to scan the large number of images. There is an image resize slider to allow you to dynamically control how big the pictures are in the page (mousing over the image results gives you a bigger version and details), and there is a scratchpad where you can drag pictures to hold on to.
One of the biggest things setting Live Search apart from other engines is that the results come back on one page. That's right, scroll down to where you would find the next page link on other search engines. Notice that Live Search just keeps giving you more images to view.
What you may not notice is that the team has sped up the rendering of the page, it now increases the speed of your experience by 44% on average. Another big improvement was in the adult filtering, which uses skin and face detection as well as some shape detection techniques (which leads me to wonder what shapes they are looking for.)
The image search team also greatly enhanced relevance. This is most noticable in searches for things like celebrity pictures. Check out this search of Hillary Duff. Where other image search engines start breaking down into images of Hillary's purse, MTV page graphics, and the layout of the venues she plays, Live Search stays on task, delivering you just the pictures of the celebrity you are looking for. Of course, if you are really interested in Hillary purses, you can always just search for that.
All the images in the Live Search have been given a uniform size, making it cleaner looking and easier to scan the large number of images. There is an image resize slider to allow you to dynamically control how big the pictures are in the page (mousing over the image results gives you a bigger version and details), and there is a scratchpad where you can drag pictures to hold on to.
One of the biggest things setting Live Search apart from other engines is that the results come back on one page. That's right, scroll down to where you would find the next page link on other search engines. Notice that Live Search just keeps giving you more images to view.
What you may not notice is that the team has sped up the rendering of the page, it now increases the speed of your experience by 44% on average. Another big improvement was in the adult filtering, which uses skin and face detection as well as some shape detection techniques (which leads me to wonder what shapes they are looking for.)
The image search team also greatly enhanced relevance. This is most noticable in searches for things like celebrity pictures. Check out this search of Hillary Duff. Where other image search engines start breaking down into images of Hillary's purse, MTV page graphics, and the layout of the venues she plays, Live Search stays on task, delivering you just the pictures of the celebrity you are looking for. Of course, if you are really interested in Hillary purses, you can always just search for that.
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Great work, I was already impressed with it before.
What is the point of resizing thumbnails though? when mousing over them they don't actually enlarge. Also I do remember getting many more results (relevant ones) when searching for Velicity Von.. hmmm
Safesearch-Moderate indeed.. I'm trying not to LOL..
Doesn't mean that it will be replacing google anytime soon. (not that I needed to cite specific examples for why it is still inferior to google and google image search.)
Great work, I was already impressed with it before.
What is the point of resizing thumbnails though? when mousing over them they don't actually enlarge. Also I do remember getting many more results (relevant ones) when searching for Velicity Von.. hmmm
Safesearch-Moderate indeed.. I'm trying not to LOL..
Doesn't mean that it will be replacing google anytime soon. (not that I needed to cite specific examples for why it is still inferior to google and google image search.)
I think the thumbnail resize is so you can get a better idea of the picture before having to mouseover, which can take a half second or so.
I would be interested in what you think makes Google better. Feel free to email me (larryla (at) ms).
Scrolling down and finding the images auto-populate is very cool! I never considered using live search for anything.
If the live search continues down this path....who knows.... Keep up the good work!!
Scrolling down and finding the images auto-populate is very cool! I never considered using live search for anything.
If the live search continues down this path....who knows.... Keep up the good work!!
It's a good thing they're fixing the adult filtering. I remembered typing in Nike, and got a few surprising photos of things that I didn't expect, especiall for something on the 2nd row. Same with some other searches I found, really nasty pictures.
(UPDATE: If you look on the 14th row, after typing in "Nike", you'll see that nasty pic I meant. I tried giving that as feedback 2 times about doing something about that pic, but that was months ago, and I guess they still haven't done something.)
How do they even index these images in the first place? Where did they manage to find all these photos, and put them on site? I'm pretty interested in knowing the answer. Thanks.
It's a good thing they're fixing the adult filtering. I remembered typing in Nike, and got a few surprising photos of things that I didn't expect, especiall for something on the 2nd row. Same with some other searches I found, really nasty pictures.
(UPDATE: If you look on the 14th row, after typing in "Nike", you'll see that nasty pic I meant. I tried giving that as feedback 2 times about doing something about that pic, but that was months ago, and I guess they still haven't done something.)
How do they even index these images in the first place? Where did they manage to find all these photos, and put them on site? I'm pretty interested in knowing the answer. Thanks.
I meant it's pointless because the thumbnails don't actually resize. All the image results are the same size, when you mouse over they don't get any bigger.
I said what makes google better, or at least aluded to what I think makes google better.
1. SafeSearch actually means something.
2. Although Live Search Images presents pictures in a pleasing streaming format once you actually pic one it has this intermediate feature that loads web pages. Which actually manage to load popups. This is a problem because those sites act like pages you're actually visiting where you only want the pictures their hosting not the popup ads which somehow manage to lauch popups (I don't know how because my browser is supposed to block them) but in terms of a comparison of presentation and features the imtermediate mode of a vertical banner of pictures you can scroll through opposite a nested webpage isn't practical. Edge goes to google because the pictures on the intermediate page, the thumbnails don't have ANY information even if you mouse over. You can't see what page they are linking to which means every picture no matter how innocuous could potentially lead you to yet another porn site.
3. Try search for Elisha Cuthbert, there is an image (the 3rd one) that links to a MySpace page. It breaks the Live Search page. Why would anyone want to use Live Search if the pages in the intermediate page are able to break the search page?
Oddly enough the tiny little button on the intermediate page Hide/Show Image actually opens a resized, though not actual pixels, thumbnail.. why can't that happen first on the main search page? second on the vertical banner of thumbnails? why is it almost hidden? and only accessible after you've loaded the main website (obviously after you're exposed to the ads from that page etc.)
[Displaying this page may force you to leave Live Search Images. Opening the page in a new window will prevent this]
^That is just wrong.
I meant it's pointless because the thumbnails don't actually resize. All the image results are the same size, when you mouse over they don't get any bigger.
I said what makes google better, or at least aluded to what I think makes google better.
1. SafeSearch actually means something.
2. Although Live Search Images presents pictures in a pleasing streaming format once you actually pic one it has this intermediate feature that loads web pages. Which actually manage to load popups. This is a problem because those sites act like pages you're actually visiting where you only want the pictures their hosting not the popup ads which somehow manage to lauch popups (I don't know how because my browser is supposed to block them) but in terms of a comparison of presentation and features the imtermediate mode of a vertical banner of pictures you can scroll through opposite a nested webpage isn't practical. Edge goes to google because the pictures on the intermediate page, the thumbnails don't have ANY information even if you mouse over. You can't see what page they are linking to which means every picture no matter how innocuous could potentially lead you to yet another porn site.
3. Try search for Elisha Cuthbert, there is an image (the 3rd one) that links to a MySpace page. It breaks the Live Search page. Why would anyone want to use Live Search if the pages in the intermediate page are able to break the search page?
Oddly enough the tiny little button on the intermediate page Hide/Show Image actually opens a resized, though not actual pixels, thumbnail.. why can't that happen first on the main search page? second on the vertical banner of thumbnails? why is it almost hidden? and only accessible after you've loaded the main website (obviously after you're exposed to the ads from that page etc.)
[Displaying this page may force you to leave Live Search Images. Opening the page in a new window will prevent this]
^That is just wrong.
Oddly beastiality results are exceedingly common. Quite sickening.. Then there a premature babies.. very tastless and objectionable results.
Oddly beastiality results are exceedingly common. Quite sickening.. Then there a premature babies.. very tastless and objectionable results.
How come they took scrolling away from the normal Live search? I loved that.
How come they took scrolling away from the normal Live search? I loved that.
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