Google Image Search Gets a New Image

If there is one thing about Google that hasn't changed much over the past few years, it might be its Image search results page. Yes, there were some UI changes, but nothing that could be termed a major redesign. That has changed now with Google rolling out its new Image results page that sports a fresher, more "modern" look.

While Google may be the most imitated technology firm out there, this time it seems to have taken a bit of inspiration from Microsoft's Bing. The latter's image results page is quite similar to the one you now see on Google. If that wasn't all, Google also follows Bing's way of doing away with multiple pages and presenting the results in a single page. While in Bing the results continue to "grow" as you scroll down, Google has made it slightly manual by adding a "Show more images" button  at the bottom of a page.

Google Images also gets thumbnail previews - a feature that it says would be useful for users on high resolution screens. It also has a "similar images" option when you hover the mouse pointer over a thumbnail. Once you click on an image, you're taken to a new landing page that displays a large image in context, with the website it's hosted on visible right behind it. Click anywhere outside the image, and you're right in the original page where you can learn more about the source and context.

Apart from these changes, Google has also included new advertisement friendly features on Google Images. It has launched a new ad format called Image Search Ads. "These ads appear only on Google Images, and they let you include a thumbnail image alongside your lines of text. . . . We hope they're a useful way to reach folks who are specifically looking for images," wrote Google Images Product Manager Nate Smith on a blog post announcing the changes.

If you cannot see the new Google Image search yet, you might want to wait for a while till its fully incorporated.