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Filed under: Web services, Beta, Search, Web

TinEye image search and comparison tool now open to the public

TinEye
TinEye is an image search engine. But unlike other image search tools such as Google Images, you don't search for pictures with text queries. Instead you upload a picture or post a URL for one that's already online and TinEye will find similar images on other web sites.

The service launched a beta last year, but you needed to sign up for an account and login every time you wanted to search. TinEye is still in beta, but last month the company removed the login requirement, which means anyone can use TinEye. No username or password necessary.

You can still register for an account which will get you access to new features ahead of other users.

[via Google Blogoscoped]

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Microsoft, Search, Web

Microsoft adds similar images feature to Live Search Images

Live Search Images
When you're using a search engine to find what you're looking for, you're probably used to typing a query, looking at the results, and refining your query. Every now and again you might even click a button that says it will show you similar results. Now Microsoft has added a button with exactly that feature to the company's image search engine.

When you conduct a search using Live Search Images, you can hover your mouse over any image and click the "show similar images" button. To be honest, it's a bit tricky to tell exactly what this does. Because if you've searched for something like "stick" you're probably already looking at a window filled with pictures of sticks. If you click the similar images button, you'll wind up on another page with images filled with sticks. That said, when I said I wanted to see similar images to a stick bug, I did get another picture of an insect - and several pictures of deodorant, glue sticks, and stick figures.

If you're looking for a more advanced image comparison service, check out TinEye, a beta site that allows you to upload a picture and find images on the internet that are compositionally similar.

[via Google Operating System]

Filed under: Beta, Search

TinEye image search engine launches public beta

TinEye

There are plenty of image search engines on the web. Enter a text based search term, and Google, MSN, or Yahoo! will spit out a series of pictures it thinks match that query. But TinEye takes a slightly different approach. This image search engine, currently in private beta, lets you upload an image from your desktop and search the web for identical or similar images. You can also use an online image as your starting point.

The concept is pretty cool. If you're looking for an image, why should you have to enter text? But the truth of the matter is it takes a bit longer to search for something using TinEye than a text based search engine. And it's a lot harder to get accurate results. If you upload a popular image that's been used on a bunch of web sites, you should be fine. But if you upload your hand-drawn image of Angelina Jolie naked, don't expect to find any high resolution images matching your query. Not that we tried.

But seriously, we uploaded a few images that have been posted here at Download Squad, and TinEye didn't spit out a single match, which means it doesn't even indext this site. So while the service claims to be searching a whopping 487 million images, it doesn't exactly cover every site on the web.

Still, we'll be keeping an eye on TinEye. If the service can improve its index and do a better job of finding similar images, and not just identical ones, it could actually become useful.

[via WebWare]

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