Problem while searching pictures

Google's Similar Images, though a step in the right direction, still has a long way to go

Problem while searching pictures

Google's Similar Images, though a step in the right direction, still has a long way to go

Searching is always a tough business as anybody who has found one polka-dotted sock and is looking through his wardrobe for its companion will attest. Fortunately, searching for stuff on the Web is a lot easier thanks to search engines like Google. But even here, searching for images can be a pain. Google has come to our rescue with Similar Images <https://similar-images.googlelabs.com/>, which is supposed to help you. But how good is it? To find out we ran some tests with it.

Which Paris?

When it works
One of the suggested searches was 'paris' and when we tried it we got the Eiffel Tower and Paris Hilton. Clicks on both these produced the right results.

Works partially

Of course, it doesn't always work. We tried 'cup' next and got some paper cups and also an award cup. Clicking on option 4 gave decent results, but clicking on the first option also gave us a metal vessel which has nothing to do with either paper or with cups.

Doesn't work
I next tried one of our favourite search terms, 'saturn'. This is always designed to fool most search engines, who can't figure out if you are referring to the Lord of the Rings or to the car from GM. And here, while we expected to see images of both the car and the planet, we were disappointed because we got just the planet. Of course 'saturn cars' gave us the cars, but this defeats the purpose of a similar mage search, right?

What next?
While Google's Similar Images search has its share of loopholes, it is a step in the right direction, and we are sure that with time, it will get refined and give us better results. But right now, as Samuel Butler said, 'Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises' and Google's Similar Images seems to be trying its best.