Back in April, Google launched a new search feature in Labs that allowed users to find similar images.
Initially rolled out for select images only, the capability is now being rolled out for what seems to be the majority of images in Google image search. This is particularly useful when search terms include homonyms, we think; and we applaud Google for removing a major pain point in our searches for pics of Tesla the band as opposed to Tesla the scientist or Tesla the automotive brand.
These days, image searches will look a bit more like this:
Note the lilac-colored links under most images. Users can employ this feature for narrowing results to specific people, objects, poses, angles, or even identical images posted on different sites. Here’s what happened when we clicked the “similar images” link under a thumbnail of hair metalists Tesla:
And again, when we clicked a thumb that pictured the entire band playing live onstage:
It would be interesting if the similarities became more and more granular, but results appear to occasionally broaden or simply stop refining a few clicks into the search process. For this search, however, we were able to see an entire set of photos from a single concert and multiple sources, which was pretty interesting.
What do our readers think? Are similar images helpful to you in your quest for better image searches?
