Google has launched two experimental products it hopes will change the way users search for pictures and news.
The first feature known as Similar Images uses a picture rather than text to find other matching images and allows users to sort through the results of an image search more easily by clicking on a “similar images” link given below the image.
To put it into perspective Let’s say a user searches for Paris on Google image search.
While the initial search would come up with the celebrity Paris Hilton, the Eiffel Tower and a photograph of an old church, clicking on any one of these images would restrict the search to one of the three. In other words the query is expressed visually as an image and not text.
This feature is preceded by launch of image search by color adding more functionality to image search and is currently available as labs feature.
This feature could also allow big publishers to prevent image hotlinking and copyright violations.
Google News Timeline:
Another feature which seems to have attracted ire from bloggers is the Google News Timeline although it could prove to be a boon for small time publishers. Google news timeline displays information already available in Google News but organised and displayed in chronological manner.
Till now small bloggers were not allowed in google news but the news timeline makes it possible to fetch news from small publishers in the timeline.
To get news from blogs click add more queries and under blog section search for a blog feed by its name. Users can also read a single blog by closing others by clicking on their name.
This could attract pro users who are always looking for fresh updates from their reading list. Although searching the news in a particular blog could be a great possible addition.
Alongside these features is a new version of Google Labs in which users can get a sneak peak on what its thousands of engineers are working on.
This means engineers can find out at a much earlier stage what does and does not work in a new feature or product allowing them to either reshape it or scrap it altogether.This approach would help google to cut down the overhead cost in implemeting labs feature.
