Google Image Search has undergone a mild facelift, and the search results page is no longer cluttered with text about pictures’ dimensions, file sizes, and url sources. That information is less than a mouse click away, however – positioning your cursor over an image will cause all of the info to appear in a familiar blue box.
This cosmetic alteration is causing a bit of a buzz, although it admittedly won’t change the world. Still, a thread on the subject at the Digital Points Forum now contains 17 posts, and there have been 25 responses to a post on WebmasterWorld.com.
Public opinion is split, but Jim Barr made an excellent point in his comment at Google Blogoscoped: “I really think that we have two different perspectives that need to be considered: User vs. Developer.”
“If you are a ‘user’ simply browsing the Web and want to find an image, say of some obscure actor or some such, Google’s Image Search is an excellent tool,” Barr continued. “Typically speaking, you don’t care about the technical details, you just want to see the image.”
“But if you are a ‘developer’, then chances are, you are likely looking for specific images based on the technical data,” he noted. “You are likely wanting to account for size, and often, dimensions are important (are you looking for a thumbnail-sized image or a large one?)”
Those are considerations that users can understand, too, in their never-ending hunt for screensaver- and background-worthy images. Still, the Google Image Search results page looks a lot cleaner now, and unless there’s some sort of coordinated public outcry, it seems as if it will stay that way.
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Doug is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest eBusiness news.
