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Google starts displaying licensing details for image results
Google is making it a lot easier to find images you can legally use for your projects. The tech giant will now mark image results with a badge that says “Licensable” if their publishers or creators have provided their licensing information. You’ll get a link to those licensing details — say, if they’re under Creative Commons and can be used for free with attribution or if they have a commercial license — when you select an image to view.
Google adds fact checking to image searches
Google has introduced fact checking information to image searches, reducing the chances that you'll be caught out by a fake.
Google's image results will soon tell you more about what you're seeing
Google's image results don't show a lot of details at first glance -- they typically only include a photo's dimensions on the bottom left corner, along with its source page's title and URL. Starting later this week, though, image results on desktop will be a bit more informative: The tech giant is replacing the images' size tags with new icons that reveal more about their sources' nature.
Google updates Images to make it easier to compare products
Google has unveiled an update to the Images interface that will allow users to compare and contrast related pictures. Entering a term like "green dress" or "black lamp" into Google Images can yield hundreds of results -- and it can be tough to narrow down the selection. Now, after users select an image, it will appear in a side panel on the page next to the search results. The image will continue to stay there as the user scrolls, allowing them to compare it with different versions of the same item.
Google brings AMP-powered search to Google Images
Google wants to make it easier for users to search for content through Google Images. To do so, it's rolling out a new, AMP-powered Swipe to Visit feature. When you select an image, you'll see a preview of the website header at the bottom of the screen. You can keep scrolling through Google Images, or swipe up on the preview to load the AMP (accelerated mobile pages) version of the site.
Google confirms ads are coming to your Discover feed for the first time
If you're one of the few people who wish for more advertisements across Google platforms, you're in luck. The search giant announced this week a whole heap of new ads that will be served up across a number of its mobile services. The personalized Discover feed in the Google app will be getting ads for the first time, while more promotional posts will be inserted within Google Images search results, YouTube feeds and Gmail inbox tabs.
Google tests shoppable ads in image searches
Google is borrowing a few cues from Instagram and Pinterest to encourage more shopping in its search results. The internet giant is testing shoppable ads within image searches -- find a picture of your ideal desk and you can tap a shopping tag button to see basic details as well as a link to buy it. This only applies to sponsored ads, thankfully, so you don't have to worry about ads covering the images you want to see.
Google image search results crammed into picture dictionary
Though not quite a replacement for Mountain View's ill-fated dictionary, this 1,240 page tome contains the first Google image search result for each word in a run-of-the-mill dictionary. With a PHP script, London-based artists Felix Heyes and Ben West scraped the image from each search and compiled an alphabetically ordered PDF brimming with 21,000 images -- safesearch-disabled warts and all. "It's really an unfiltered, uncritical record of the state of human culture in 2012," West told Creative Applications Network. Alas, the volume isn't destined for mass distribution -- presumably to avoid copyright issues -- but the pair is considering sending a small batch of soft cover copies to print.
Google Images get spruced up, don't need no stinkin' text
Those alchemists over in Mountain View have been fiddling with their search engine again and the product has been one of the biggest redesigns ye olde Google has received to date. Gone are the little captions and size measurements under each image -- well, not gone, just hidden away until you hover over a pic -- to be replaced by a densely packed compendium of your results, which just keeps going and going. Seriously, the new Images search can fit up to 1,000 pictures on one page, with thumbnails loading in a logical top-to-bottom order. A new landing page has also been implemented, showing you the image you selected superimposed on top of the website it belongs to, making for a more streamlined search experience overall. We like it, it's fast and it's pretty cool, but is anyone working on result relevance at all? Try looking for an iPhone 4 snapshot and you'll have to scroll past 43 mockups before finding the real thing.
Google releases Visigami, open source image browser
The guys over at the Google Mac blog have dropped a new little open source application called Visigami, which serves as a more "interesting" and "fun" way to browse and play around with images online. Basically, after installing the app, you can then pull in pics from Picasa, Google Images, or Flickr (iPhoto is just a suggestion so far), and then search, animate, zoom in or out on them, and even turn them right into a screensaver.It's a pretty neat little application -- not exactly the kind of thing that anyone has probably been hoping for (it seems more fun than utilitarian), but if you find yourself often browsing photos online, this definitely seems like a more fun way to do it. And it's one more reason to praise all the great developers working on our platform -- it's little apps like this that make the Mac user experience so much better.
