Pictures # 1

pictures

Pictures

Picture search engines aim to do the impossible: to read pictures. The problem is that search engines in general are only able to read texts. That's why even big photo sites have to make use of clear descriptions of each photo, because without the text they will not be able to index the pictures and the photos will remain unknown for the web surfer.

pictures

Pictures

You need to know these limitations of search engines if you search for pictures but also when you use pictures online yourself.

pictures

Pictures

The special picture search engines are developed to make the most out of the impossible conditions when searching the web for photos and other pictures. Google and Yahoo and other big search engines (SE) have had to develop special search engines to cope with picture search.

pictures

Pictures

The special search engines for pictures are making use of the file name of the pictures. It is easy to locate picture files. Firstly they are often located in a folder called images, because that is a widespread practice. Secondly and more important the pictures will have one of the special extensions for pictures of which the most common are .jpeg, .jpg, .gif, and .tiff .

pictures

Pictures

So to locate the picture files is not difficult for the SE. The problem comes when the search engine algorithm shall estimate the content of the pictures that is what the picture is about.

pictures

Pictures

If the picture has a filename like dog.jpg it is not difficult. But if the file name is snoopy.jpg it is not so easy. The SE make use of the ALT tag. In the ALT tag an additional text is provided that is coupled to the picture when it is inserted at the webpage. You can see the ALT text when you mouse over the picture, or if for some reason the picture is not being shown on the webpage.

pictures

Pictures

The ALT text is a tool to help blind people to get information about the pictures. As the picture search engines are picture blind as explained they will also make use of the alt text to get information about what the picture is about. In reality only a smaller number of pictures are providing this additional information in the alt tag.

pictures

Pictures

In addition to these approaches the picture search engines are using the text around the picture to estimate what the picture is about. When a caption is obvious it should function as a source of very useful information for what the picture is showing. In practice many captions are not so precise or useful.

pictures

Pictures

You can try to take a look at a number of well visited websites and check if the pictures are easy to identify form their file name, from their alt text (if any) and from the text near to these picture. You will probably see many examples of how these aspects on the websites could be greatly improved.

pictures

Pictures

Anyway the special picture search engines are becoming better and better, and the number of indexed photos and other pictures are immense in the special search engines for images like Google Images and Yahoo Image Search. These search engines for pictures are harvesting the pictures they find on websites and do their best to make them searchable.

pictures

Pictures

You will get at mixture of thumbnail pictures of very low quality - probably the most common pictures online - and better quality photos and other pictures. The high quality photos and pictures in general are more difficult to find or at least more difficult to sort from the mainstream use of low resolution online pictures. High resolution pictures of professional high quality are rather difficult to locate with the picture search engines.

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