March 8, 2012

Google Launches New Image Search Design

Google announced today that it is rolling out a new design for Image Search. The new design includes a tiled layout with instant scrolling between pages. This has already drawn some inevitable comparisons to Bing’s image search, which is particularly interesting given Google’s overall more Bing-like user interface launched earlier this year.

You can get up to a thousand images in one scrolling page, and the pages will have page numbers so you can keep track of where you are. This has been a feature lacking from Bing’s image search (though it does at least display a number for the range currently displayed…such as 377-416 of 6,400,000 results).

Google is also providing larger thumbnail previews on the results page, with a hover pane that appears when you mouse over a thumbnail. This includes more info and other features like "similar images."

Google Has a New Image Search design

"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," explains Google Images Product Manager Nate Smith. "Click anywhere outside the image, and you’re right in the original page where you can learn more about the source and context."

Finally, you can use Page Up/ Page Down to scroll through pages quickly.

The new design will be rolling out over the next few days in most local interfaces around the world, along with a new image ad format.

Related posts:

  1. Google Launches New Image Search Ads
  2. Webmasters Complain About New Google Image Search
  3. Google Improves Mobile Image Search
  4. Mobile and Location Fueling the Design of Future Search
  5. The Google design, turned up a notch