Google Image Search Now Dumber

It seems that with every passing year Google throws away some search capability that I found useful. The latest victim is Google's Advanced Image Search tool. In using Google's Advanced Image Search one of the features I used most regularly was the ability to filter results based on image size. I had the option of doing this either at the time I was entering my search criteria or from the filter sidebar on the search results page.

When I'm searching for a photograph I don't want to be bombarded with every thumbnail image that has a tie in to my search term(s). I therefore ALWAYS specify a minimum image size. Of course when I am specifically looking for icons and such I specifically want small images. I have found the ability to search based on image size the single most useful image search filter Google offers.

Earlier today I headed over to Google's Advanced Image Search to look for an image of Uncle Sam to use for a presentation I was working on. I looked once, twice, thrice and could not find the image size option. Thinking something was askew with the page itself, I reloaded the page but still no option to specify the image size. Thinking that maybe I'd be able to select an image size on the search results page (an option I had frequently used in the past), I pressed enter to start the search. Yikes. Google has eliminated ALL search options from the sidebar area on the image search results page. What on Earth are the Google developers thinking? Perhaps I was only imagining the size filter?

Nope. Visiting the image search help page, there it is – the image Size option. So Google's Advanced Image Search is now much less advanced than it used to be, as well as much less useful. I can't imagine what justification there was for removing not only the image size option, but also the entire search results sidebar. I hope that Google's decision to drop size as a search option generates enough uproar that Google brings back what I found to be the single most useful filter that the Advanced Image Search tool offered. I also hope that they bring back the results page filters sidebar that allowed me to change my search options without having to return to the main site search entry page.

Google Reference Links

• Google Advanced Image Search page
• Google Image Search Help page

Alternative Image Search Engines

• Bing Image Search – the Microsoft search tool
• Picsearch
• Yahoo image search
• TinEye (a reverse image search engine that I have used in the past but not a substitute for standard image searches)

| Return to the Blog Index | This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2012 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Computing.