Google updates Image Search to display relevant results

ADVERTISING BROKER Google has updated its image search to allow users to sort results by subject.

Google announced a major change to its image search that allows users to view images that are sorted by what Google's algorithm believes is relevant to the original query. Google says its image search builds on technology found in its Similar Images and Image Swirl products.

Google used the example of 'London' to show off how its new algorithm analyses images on a per pixel level and look closely at relationships to return "meaningful connections and groupings among images". Unfortunately for Google, the search of "London Bridge", returns pictures of Tower Bridge, not that such a mistake has ever led to any embarrassment in the past.

Searching images wasn't Google's only release, with the outfit also bringing out the Google APIs Discovery Service. The service provides machine readable metadata for Google APIs and inline documentation of methods, parameters and allowed values. Alongside this, Google announced it will be open sourcing its API Explorer.

Despite Google's slip-up with London Bridge, image search without the use of tagging is a complex problem and Google's engineers did well with this release. The firm said it will roll out image search in most languages over the next week. µ