Google Images was built in 2001 with around 250 million images indexed. By 2005, Google had indexed over 1 billion. And today, Google have an index of over 10 billion images.
Since 2001, Google Images has been powered with varieties of sophisticated technology and deep computer science to make it even faster and easier for you to find precisely the right images.
Meanwhile, the quantity and variety of images on the web has ballooned since 2001, and images have become one of the most popular types of content people search for.
So over the next few days Google’re rolling out an update to Google Images to match the scope and beauty of this fast-growing visual web, and to bring to the surface some of the powerful technology behind Images.
Here’s what’s new in this refreshed design of Google Images:
* Dense tiled layout designed to make it easy to look at lots of images at once. We want to get the app out of the way so you can find what you’re really looking for.
* Instant scrolling between pages, without letting you get lost in the images. You can now get up to 1,000 images, all in one scrolling page. And we’ll show small, unobtrusive page numbers so you don’t lose track of where you are.
* Larger thumbnail previews on the results page, designed for modern browsers and high-res screens.
* A hover pane that appears when you mouse over a given thumbnail image, giving you a larger preview, more info about the image and other image-specific features such as “Similar images.”
* Once you click on an image, you’re taken to a new landing page that displays a large image in context, with the website it’s hosted on visible right behind it. Click anywhere outside the image, and you’re right in the original page where you can learn more about the source and context.
* Optimized keyboard navigation for faster scrolling through many pages, taking advantage of standard web keyboard shortcuts such as Page Up / Page Down. It’s all about getting you to the info you need quickly, so you can get on with actually building that treehouse or buying those flowers.
If you like this informative post, then please subscribe to my full RSS Feed.