S Y meta search (or image search engine) is a type of

search engine A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...

specialised on finding pictures, images,

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

s etc. Like the text search, image search is an

information retrieval Information retrieval (IR) in computing and information science is the process of obtaining information system resources that are relevant to an information need from a collection of those resources. Searches can be based on full-text or other co ...

system designed to help to find information on the Internet and it allows the user to look for images etc. using

keyword Keyword may refer to: Computing * Keyword (Internet search), a word or phrase typically used by bloggers or online content creator to rank a web page on a particular topic * Index term, a term used as a keyword to documents in an information syste ...

s or search phrases and to receive a set of thumbnail images, sorted by relevancy. Specialised search engines, like in the fields of image search, are among the fastest growing search services on the internet. In 2005 alone the number of image searches increased by 91% (Nielsen/NetRatings 2006-03-31). The most common search engines today offer image search such as

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...

or Bing!.

How image search works

A common misunderstanding when it comes to image search is that the technology is based on detecting information in the image itself. But most image search works as other

s. The

metadata Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive metadata – the descriptive ...

of the image is indexed and stored in a large database and when a search query is performed the image search engine looks up the

index Index (or its plural form indices) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on a Halo megastru ...

, and queries are matched with the stored information. The results are presented in order of relevancy. The usefulness of an image search engine depends on the relevance of the results it returns, and the ranking algorithms are one of the keys to becoming a big player.{{Cite web , last=Lipinski , first=Klaus , title=Visual Search , url=https://www.itwissen.info/Visual-Search-visual-search.html , access-date=2022-11-03 , website=ITWissen.info , language=de Some search engines can automatically identify a limited range of visual content, e.g. faces, trees, sky, buildings, flowers, colours etc. This can be used alone, as in content-based image retrieval, or to augment metadata in an image search. When performing a search the user receives a set of thumbnail images, sorted by relevancy. Each thumbnail is a link back to the original web site where that image is located. Using an advanced search option the user can typically adjust the search criteria to fit their own needs, choosing to search only images or animations, color or black and white, and setting preferences on image size.

Image search providers

* AltaVista * Corbis * GazoPa (similar image search, has been shut down for consumer, still available for business user) *

Google Image Search Google Images (previously Google Image Search) is a search engine owned by Google that allows users to search the World Wide Web for images. It was introduced on July 12, 2001 due to a demand for pictures of the green Versace dress of Jennifer ...

(also

reverse image search Reverse image search is a content-based image retrieval (CBIR) query technique that involves providing the CBIR system with a sample image that it will then base its search upon; in terms of information retrieval, the sample image is very usefu ...

) *

Live Search Microsoft Bing (commonly known as Bing) is a web search engine owned and operated by Microsoft. The service has its origins in Microsoft's previous search engines: MSN Search, Windows Live Search and later Live Search. Bing provides a variety ...

from

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

* Macroglossa ( visual search engine ) * Picollator * Picsearch * Pixsta * TinEye (only reverse image search) * Yandex Search (also reverse image search)

References

Image search Internet search engines Internet search algorithms

How image search works

Image search providers

See also

References