Images and search – find and know me if you can

June 7th, 2012 by Tim Greenhalgh

We’ve been through this many time before and apologies for bringing it up again but why do I look like this when I search Google Images?

And this

And this

Am I being careless about the way I look online? I don’t think so.  Is there a way to embed more detail in a digital image that can be queried by Google, Bing and other search engines so that they can deliver the precise visual data requested?

I do understand that, when someone (a very close friend for example), types in a search term “Tim Greenhalgh, forgotten genius, inventor of the Smarg”, they would expect a first-line, first-page match.

But to simply search for “Tim Greenhalgh” is to invite a world of pain and confusion.

Of course, we can look after our image on the web and label our images in the best possible way. That still leaves a big gap between precision and a punt on Google, Bing et al.

Images and their discordant cousin, video have reached a primary position on the web, piggy-back style, using text and association to raise profile.

Can we free the image and let it range by itself by opening a line of data to search engines that enables precise match and strengthens the curation of visual objects online?

      

Tags: image search, tim greenhalgh

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