tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37468753191082339062024-03-06T12:05:11.121-08:00GazoPa BlogGazoPa is a next generation similar image search engine that use image features such as a color and a shape that are extracted from image itself.GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-47393825262509452132011-06-05T00:44:00.000-07:002011-06-05T00:45:01.594-07:00Memory of GazoPa<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KCeY7OxpNXg" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" width="425"></iframe>GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-89804225759282591082011-06-01T07:20:00.000-07:002011-06-01T07:40:27.689-07:00相似图片搜索GazoPa<a href="http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/I4CbMMat-Ug/">中文版视频<br /></a><br />联系我们 : contact@gazopa.com<a href="http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/I4CbMMat-Ug/"><br /></a>GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-28306793659409677312011-05-31T06:30:00.000-07:002011-05-31T06:32:57.577-07:00Shut Down Notice from GazoPaDear GazoPa User,<br />Thank you for using GazoPa services. <a href="http://www.gazopa.com">GazoPa.com</a> started at TechCrunch50 in September 2008 and has grown to more than 90,000 unique users per month. However, we have decided to put our time and efforts to BtoB business and will discontinue our BtoC services on June8, 2011. We have received lots of inquiries from all over the world and decided to focus on BtoB market especially in China where e-commerce grows dramatically.<br /><br />When we started our service in 2008, some people were skeptical about our activity. But Since then, the number of images and videos on the internet are increasing and the demand to a navigation tool is growing as well. Considering inquiries that reach to us, we believe similar image search engine would be becoming must-have tool in various kinds of fields.<br /><br />Due to our limited resources, we have had to make the hard decision to shut down our BtoC sites and decided to focus on BtoB market.<br /><br />We'll be launching a new image search site mainly for research purpose in near future as an alternative tool for our current users.<br /><br />If you have any questions, please email <a href="mailto:contact@gazopa.com">contact@gazopa.com</a>.<br /><br />One again, thank you all for your support over the years.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br /><br />The GazoPa teamGazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-15979376131060880432011-01-08T18:46:00.000-08:002011-01-08T18:48:15.598-08:00Stock photo is searchableStock photo is searchable at <a href="http://www.gazopa.com/">GazoPa.com</a> now. Searching for Flickr photos with Creative Commons have been popular for users who search for images that can be used at their presentations. Now stock photo can be a choice for your slick presentations.<br /><br />Just click 'stock photo' tab on search result pages. It enables you to search for similar images among stock photos.<br /><br />Stock photo from Shutterstock is available now and other stock photo will be added to our database soon.GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-9569913269168540652010-10-28T05:20:00.000-07:002010-10-28T05:32:59.648-07:00One year has passed since launch of open betaOne year has passed since launch of <a href="http://www.gazopa.com/">GazoPa.com</a> in open beta. Thank you for your support and feedback. The number of unique user has grown to more than 80,000 per month and it doubled during six months. I should admit that this number is not big as a web service, but it's not too bad as a web service that does not run ads.<br /><br />The number of images that we have indexed has reached 90 million and it will exceed 100 million soon. It took longer than we expected, because it was not an easy job to handle these huge data. I'm very proud of our engineers who have overcome these difficulties.<br /><br />We released three services within one year such as <a href="http://style.gazopa.com/">GazoPa Style Search</a>, <a href="http://answers.gazopa.com/">GazoPa Answers</a> and <a href="http://bloom.gazopa.com/">GazoPa Bloom</a>. GazoPa Style Search is a service that our technology has been applied to e-commerce. We changed UI that sorts search results by price range recently and it helps users to find Steal vs. Splurge easily. GazoPa Answers and GazoPa Bloom is a service that has social element and the more users use these, the more interesting these services become.<br /><br />We released new services one after another during one year. It's a good timing to review our works and to improve these so that we can satisfy current users. We're especially focusing on tuning up search results of GazoPa Style Search. Please keep watching our progress in next one year.GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-1585098500224294612010-09-10T22:20:00.000-07:002010-09-10T22:24:22.601-07:00Two years has passed since our launch in private betaTwo years has passed since launch of <a href="http://www.gazopa.com/">GazoPa.com</a> in private beta. It was during my trip in summer vacation that I heard news we were selected as a finalist for TechCrunch50. When I applied to the contest, no one including us believed that we would be selected finally. But fortunately, we got a ticket to pitch our service in front of many audiences. I sometimes imagine what situation we were in if we were not selected. Our situation would have been totally different.<br /><br />We have released one iPhone app, two facebook app and three web services during this two years. When we released GazoPa.com in private beta two years ago, some people said 'Image search? Is it promising?' But during this two years, situation has been changed a lot. Google implemented similar search feature at Google images and they display advertisements on result pages as they do in web search. They finally acquired like.com last month. EBay started offering beta service of similar image search on fashion category this year.<br /><br />Situation around image search is moving fast. Image search has been studied many years and it's not a new area as research. Lots of companies have been trying to find a fortune in this field and they failed. Monetizing has been a critical issue for these companies. But e-commerce has been grown rapidly and navigation tool among tons of products has been awaited to be implemented. Image search meets e-commerce and this growing field would be a good application for it.<br /><br />Our <a href="http://style.gazopa.com/">GazoPa Style Search</a> is one of examples of this friendship. Current phase is in very early one and this is closer to our proof of concept rather than final service. We'll add new features continuously so that we can show image search would be a must-have features in e-commerce.<br /><br />Trend toward image search just started and we'd like to provide necessary services over this tide and celebrate our next two years.GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-91882771367768344812010-07-31T22:54:00.000-07:002010-07-31T23:04:23.865-07:00Launch of GazoPa Style and GazoPa AnswersTwo weeks have passed since our launch of <a href="http://style.gazopa.com/">GazoPa Style</a> and <a href="http://answers.gazopa.com/">GazoPa Answers</a>. GazoPa Style is a visual product search site that enables you to browse and search for similar fashion items easily. We have received not a few inquiries from e-commerce companies since our launch of <a href="http://www.gazopa.com/">GazoPa.com</a>. But we have not applied our technology to product images specially, so <a href="http://style.gazopa.com/">GazoPaStyle</a> is our first step.<br /><br /><a href="http://style.gazopa.com/">GazoPa Style</a> allows you to upload images from your own personal computers and to use images on other sites found by uploading image URL or by their plug-in tool for searching similar products. Currently women’s clothing shown on eBay, Amazon and Etsy are searchable at <a href="http://style.gazopa.com/">GazoPa Style</a>.<br /><br />One of challenging points is to display photos from eBay and Amazon at the same time, because quality of these photos differ from each other. Some photos on eBay are taken by individuals and all photos on Amazon are taken by professional photographers. Displaying photo taken by individual next to professional photo may not always generate a good user experience. It may confuse users whether they can buy new products or used items on Style. We're studying how we can provide a nice user experience.<br /><br /><a href="http://answers.gazopa.com/">GazoPa Answers</a> is a visual Q&A site that enables you to ask questions visually. Users of GazoPa.com sent photos to us directly and asked us 'Who is this model?''Where is this?' 'What brand is this?'. Since GazoPa.com is a search service, it requires users to look for answers by themselves, but users may not always reach to appropriate answers. So, we think it may help users if there is a site where users can ask visual questions. This is the story behind GazoPa Answers.<br /><br />There are lots of Q&A services on the internet, but almost all accept questions by text rather than by image. Type of questions by image is different from that by text and we think <a href="http://answers.gazopa.com/">GazoPa Answers</a> can have a unique position in Q&A area.<br /><br />Since we just started <a href="http://answers.gazopa.com/">GazoPa Answers</a>, there is not many Q&A on it. But the more data we have, the more fun and more useful it becomes.<br /><br />These service are in Beta stage, so your feedback would be highly appreciated.<br /><br /><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0I4wVzq3_JI&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0I4wVzq3_JI&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="340" width="560"></embed></object><br /><br /><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dODpFmsw0d4&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dODpFmsw0d4&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="340" width="560"></embed></object>GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-72711899058362589052010-06-16T15:40:00.000-07:002010-06-16T15:45:17.436-07:00GazoPa Presentation at Hitachi's ConferenceIt's glad to inform you that Hideki Kobayashi, a project leader of GazoPa, (it's me) will make a presentation about GazoPa at Hitachi's private conference, uVALUE convention on July23. Hitachi celebrates 100 year anniversary this year and we're honored to be a presenter at their main conference.<br /><br />I have made presentations at not a few places in USA such as TechCrunch50, Summit at Stanford and Silicon Valley Launch 2009 etc. But this is the first time that I would introduce our service in Japan. It's a good opportunity for us to share our story with Japanese people, although our site has no Japanese version.<br /><br />All speech would be in Japanese, so please feel free to join our seminar.<br /><br />Date : 10:00-11:00, July23<br />Place : Tokyo International Forum<br /><br /> See <a href="https://reg.hitachi-uvcon.com/public/session/view/112">seminar</a> in detail (in Japanese)GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-74170666193799293882010-06-01T11:46:00.000-07:002010-06-01T13:23:13.646-07:00iPhone and Ruby on Rails developerWe have already found a Ruby Front End Developer for previous post. <br /><br />In addition to this, we're looking for an iPhone and Ruby on Rails developer as well due to our large volume of development. <br /><br />Requirement is as follows. Please also see <a href="http://jobview.monster.com/iPhone-Ruby-on-Rails-Developer-Temporary-Full-Time-Job-Santa-Clara-CA-88397459.aspx">our post</a> on Monster in detail.<br /><br />The following skills are required<br />In-depth knowledge and prior experience developing iPhone applications<br />In-depth knowledge of Objective C<br />In-depth knowledge of Cocoa Touch<br />In-depth knowledge of iPhone SDK<br />In-depth knowledge Interface Builder<br />Three years experience developing web applications<br />Three years of applied Ruby on Rails experience<br />Developing social media experience is preferred<br />Prior experience using JAVA, MySQL, HTML and CSS<br />Energetic and Self Motivated<br />Excellent communication skills<br /><br />Location : Santa Clara, CA<br />Duration : Three monthsGazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-74986549952550038692010-05-02T18:36:00.000-07:002010-05-02T18:37:56.696-07:00Ruby Front End Developer (contractor)We're planning to develop a new social media service and are looking for a Ruby Front End<br />Developer as a contractor. <br /><br />Please also see <a href="http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/eng/1720190336.html">our post on craiglist</a>.<br /><br />Responsibilities<br />Design and implement web applications using Ruby on Rails<br />Develop clear and intuitive front end user interfaces from mock ups or wireframes<br /><br />Requirements<br />Three year of applied Ruby on Rails experience<br />Three years experience developing web applications<br />Developing social media experience is preferred<br />Prior experience using Ruby, JAVA, MySQL, HTML and CSS<br />Energetic and Self Motivated<br />Excellent communication skills<br />Must be local to bay area<br /><br />Contractors work on site in Santa Clara, CA one day per week at least.<br />Start Date: ASAP<br />Term: Three month duration (It may be extended.)<br /><br />Please send us a resume with a recent portfolio to contact (at) gazopa.com.GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-90342490462431258642010-04-03T21:16:00.000-07:002010-04-03T21:20:01.764-07:00Why flower?Two weeks have passed since our launch of <a href="http://bloom.gazopa.com/">GazoPa Bloom</a>. I was asked by not a few people including venture capitalists that why we chose flower.<br /><br />There are a couple of reasons that we chose flower as our theme of our new service. When we go hiking or walk on streets, we can see beautiful flowers that are unknown to us. If you use a camera phone, it's natural to search for flowers after taking photos.<br /><br />Birds are also one of candidates. But since birds are animals who always move, it's not easy to snap photos with normal cameras. Flowers are still life and it's easy for people to take close shots.<br /><br />Our ultimate purpose is to answer questions 'What is this?'. Current searches rely on keywords. It requires you to describe objects in words. Users need to be active when they have questions. But as proverb says 'A picture is worth a thousand words.', it's not easy to describe what you see in words. If photos become queries, search would become more natural and easier.<br /><br />In this context, vertical database is required for answering questions and only one sort of database is not enough. So, flower is the first step toward this ultimate purpose. We'll have many vertical database in future. Please give us your suggestions about our database (contact at gazopa.com). For example, <a href="http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/gazopa-gets-in-bloom/">ResearchBuzz</a> suggests we should have a database of car.GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-82469624847453729242010-03-26T20:24:00.000-07:002010-03-26T20:31:58.617-07:00GazoPa Bloom enters private betaWe recently released flower community site, <a href="http://bloom.gazopa.com/">GazoPa Bloom</a>. This site enables users to search for candidate flower names by uploading flower photos that are unfamiliar to them. GazoPa Bloom is not just a flower search site. Users can also share flower knowledge as well as flower photos.<br /><br />When we released image search engine service, <a href="http://www.gazopa.com/">GazoPa.com</a>, we received feedback that praised us for our achievement. But some feedback requested us to improve our service, because unexpected category of images appeared as search results. Since our image search is based on similarity and our database consists from images from web, mixture of different category of images is inevitable.<br /><br />One of solution for this issue is to improve our technology. The second one is to let users select category of image when users upload images. Third one is to have a database that consists from one category of image. GazoPa Bloom has been developed to materialize this third approach.<br /><br />Since GazoPa Bloom is still in private beta stage, I should admit that our image search technology and list of classification are not perfect and search results may not be so accurate. In order to fulfill this gap, we rely on power of users. GazoPa Bloom has a feature that asks other users to help users identify flowers. This can increase possibility to find an appropriate name for users.<br /><br />GazoPa Bloom currently has very simple features i.e. search, share and discover flowers. We'll add more attractive features soon.<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xNouJXIKoKY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xNouJXIKoKY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-69132187779179967362010-03-13T03:59:00.000-08:002010-03-13T04:00:27.599-08:00New Video : Get Inspired by GazoPa<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rjwe7xhSRek&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rjwe7xhSRek&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-24761445543010191232010-03-13T01:06:00.000-08:002010-03-13T01:08:32.128-08:00Web2.0 ExpoWe'll exhibit at the <a href="http://www.web2expo.com/webexsf2010">Web2.0 Expo</a> in San Francisco on May4-5 this year, too. The Expo is short for one day this year and I'm not sure if it's because people is moving on to Web3.0.<br /><br />I think we can announce a nice thing during the Expo. Free Expo Pass is available now (discount code EXPOPASS). See you again in San Francisco!GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-58019677155363678062010-02-27T00:40:00.000-08:002010-02-27T00:41:47.490-08:00New Video : How to Get Inspired by GazoPa<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7K4QraIKEiY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7K4QraIKEiY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-72891651008240703622010-02-13T04:06:00.000-08:002010-02-13T04:07:49.953-08:00New Video : Find a present by GazoPaNew video 'Find a present by GazoPa'.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qNtd76HuWkY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qNtd76HuWkY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-2001983369686572652010-02-12T23:39:00.000-08:002010-02-12T23:40:33.646-08:00New Video : Find a place by GazoPaHere's a new video 'Find a Place by GazoPa'. <br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kt7ZQm4eOKI&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kt7ZQm4eOKI&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-83490049863893477682010-02-12T03:49:00.000-08:002010-02-12T03:52:22.490-08:00New Video : Find Presentation Materials by GazoPaHere is a new video 'Find Presentation Materials by GazoPa'.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/W6eAOw5W0V0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/W6eAOw5W0V0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-83602974781117199112010-01-27T06:34:00.000-08:002010-01-27T06:37:41.254-08:00Three months has passed since our launch of open betaThree months has passed since our launch of open beta. We received bunch of feedback and suggestion and not a few feedback were sent anonymously. I can't return my message to these anonymous ones directly, so I hereby express my thank sincerely.<br /><br />First 100days are called as the presidential honeymoon and people avoid criticizing the president severely. So we may receive severe feedback from now on, but we always welcome your honest comment.<br /><br />The biggest update during three months is <a href="http://gazopablog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-features-to-search-for-images-of.html">image search on Twitter</a> that were released last week. Images uploaded on Twitter may not have enough tags, so our similar search is a convenient tool for users. Twitter is a Real Time communication tool and its usage are changing rapidly, so we need to investigate further how we should provide these image search.<br /><br />We're in the final development stage of our new web application. It's not only an image search but also .... I think we can release new service in private beta around the middle of February. We will not have a special event that Apple has today, but I hope you stay tuned.GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-9305130435721077652010-01-16T06:55:00.000-08:002010-01-18T03:50:23.530-08:00New Features to search for Images of Twitter, Funny and SportsWe just released new features that enables users to search for images of Twitter, Funny and Sports in <a href="http://www.gazopa.com/">GazoPa.com</a>.<br /><br />Images on Twitter<br />Twitter is getting popular as sharing images well as sharing comments. Since images on Twitter may not have enough tags, it's not easy to search for them afterwards. Now GazoPa allows users to search for similar images on Twitter. Click 'Twitter' link on the top line and latest images on Twitter are displayed in time line. Or click Twitter tab when you set any image as a search key. Images on Twitter that are similar to the search key are searched. Images uploaded by Twitpic, TweetPhoto, Fotolife and direct image URL can be searchable now and we will add images that are uploaded by other tools in future. (Update : Jan18. Due to limitation of Twitter API, we don't cover all images uploaded by Twitpic unfortunately.)<br /><br />Funny Images<br />We realize that some users use GazoPa to search for funny images. So, we made new 'Funny' link and tab that allows these users to find Funny images more easily. An image has a power to make you laugh and relax. This new feature helps users to encounter funny images and make their life more enjoyable.<br /><br />Sports Images <br />Sports images were displayed together with News images before and we received feedback that asked us to show sports images separately. We made new 'Sports' link and tab accordingly and this enables sports fan to reach desired images more easily. Sports images consists from valuable scenes and this feature helps users enjoy exciting moment.<br /><br />Please give us your feedback to these new features contact (at) gazopa.com.GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-27637193119884419322010-01-10T23:17:00.000-08:002010-01-10T23:25:13.998-08:00Do you like advertisement on image search?I was asked recently whether GazoPa includes advertisement. We have not included advertisement in any forms such as text or display ads. But an advertisement is one of major monetizing method, so we'll consider to include advertisements.<br /><br />Google did trials to include advertisement in their image search and <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a1t9ASFGIJlY">'trials showed that text ads drove people away from conducting image searches, and Google dropped that idea'</a> in 2006. But as far as I know, Google started including text advertisement into image search last year. It means they think users' behaviors have changed and they accept advertisement on image search. Advertisements are located on upper side of search results and I have never seen it is posted at the right side of search results as in web search.<br /><br />Yahoo image also includes advertisement as well, but advertisement are located at the right side of search results. Bing has not included advertisement at their image search.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/03/google-image-search-ads-in-the-wild-looks-like-they-need-work/">Google experimented display ads in 2008.</a> But I have never seen them and Google might have not come to final decision yet. Although there are no major search engines who include display ads, display ads should be next trend, because this type of ads can attract more users than text ads. We can see display ads at <a href="http://www.cooliris.com/">Cooliris</a> and these ads are inserted into images very naturally (Actually, these are video ads.). Questions are how relevant display ads can be. Our similar search technology can solve this relevancy issue, so I think we can show display ads naturally at <a href="http://www.gazopa.com/">GazoPa.com</a>.GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-711536409370078192010-01-06T05:58:00.000-08:002010-01-06T06:05:16.822-08:00A Tip of BookmarkletWe received a feedback that asked us to provide a bookmarklet recently. Actually, we have been providing a bookmarklet since our private beta. I wonder why such feedback came to us and I found it's not easy for users to find a page for installing bookmarklet.<br /><br />Our bookmarklet can be installed <a href="http://www.gazopa.com/plugin/">here</a> and it's on the same page of plug-in. I think users may only know plug-in is downloadable there, but may not imagine that bookmarklet can be installed as well from the same page.<br /><br />Bookmarklet is also very useful, especially when browsing pages with full of images. Just click bookmarklet and frames of images on the pages become blue. When you hover mouse on the images, 'similar search' button comes out.<br /><br />In case of plug-in, right-click is required on each image. When there are lots of images on the same page and you want to use each image as a search query, it's a little bit troublesome to right-click on each image.<br /><br />But if you use bookmarklet, just hover mouse on the images and a search button comes out. It's much more convenient.<br /><br />For installing bookmarklet, click <a href="http://www.gazopa.com/plugin/">here</a> or click 'Tool' on the top page and click 'Plug-in'.GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-16405729622665833892010-01-04T07:22:00.000-08:002010-01-04T07:27:22.555-08:00The reason to search for imagesWhy do you search for images? Image search is always quoted as the second largest search area next to web search. How big is the market? According to <a href="http://www.quantcast.com/google.com/traffic/sites">Quancast</a>, unique visitors to images.google.com in the USA is 32 million, while unique visitors to google.com in the USA is 142 million. Since YouTube does not use Google subdomain, her data is not included in the list. YouTube has <a href="http://www.quantcast.com/youtube.com#traffic">85 million unique visitors</a> in the USA, so Google images are the fourth largest Google product after google search, maps and YouTube. <br /><br />32 million is a huge number and what do these users search at image search? I don't have a figure of Google, but according to <a href="http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?art_aid=111708&fa=Articles.showArticle">Laurie Sullivan's blog</a>, Todd Schwartz, group product manager of online services division for Bing at Microsoft mentioned that '40% of the overall image queries are related to commercial searches, such as travel and shopping, Microsoft found that another 44% of the searches for images related to science and nature and fashion, as well as tattoos. The remainder of searches related to entertainment, from movies and television to video games and celebrities.'<br /><br />Image search Queries to the Bing<br /><br />40% commercial searches, such as travel and shopping<br />44% science and nature and fashion, as well as tattoos<br />16% entertainment, from movies and television to video games and celebrities<br /><br />It's interesting that not a few queries are related to science and nature. Is it because it's easy to understand science visually? It's also an eye-opening fact that people search for tattoos, although it may be easy to search for tattoo by image itself rather than by keyword. <br /><br />Above data is that of image search by keyword. The number of Search by upload image is largest search queries at <a href="http://www.gazopa.com">GazoPa</a>. I'm not sure that the trend at GazoPa is same or similar to the keyword search. I'd like to share the figure of GazoPa in future.GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-65825646961216735032009-12-25T06:26:00.000-08:002009-12-25T06:30:46.685-08:00Some questions about uploaded imagesWe are asked by a couple of people if uploaded images are added to search index automatically. No. Images uploaded to GazoPa are not added to the search index, nor are they made accessible by other users automatically, unless users expressly choose to publish their photos and drawings. We added this clause in our <a href="http://www.gazopa.com/faq">FAQ</a>.<br /><br />Users can publish their drawings when they choose to do it. These drawings can be accessed by other users so that users can share nice search results with others.<br /><br />We also received questions about rights of uploaded images from designers during our private beta. Some designers stated that our terms of service did not warrant their rights who upload their designed logo to check whether there is similar one or not. We reviewed our terms of service and clearly stated the rights of users <a href="http://www.gazopa.com/terms_of_service">here</a>.<br /><br />"3. User Content. User retains all copyrights and any other rights User already holds in Content which User submits, posts or displays on or through, GazoPa."<br /><br />If there is any question about our service, please feel free to contact us contact (at) gazopa.com.GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3746875319108233906.post-27220756546048266002009-12-23T04:54:00.000-08:002009-12-23T05:01:22.474-08:00A Tip for better search resultsOur current service may not always satisfy all users at the first query. Human eyes are very sophisticated systems and it's a tough job for computer vision to catch up with them. Here are tips when you encounter search results you don't expect.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">1. What you can do</span><br />1) Search Option<br /> Try search options ; shape, layout and color.<br />2) Face Search<br /> At current user interface, face search are not active at the first query. If you want to find same or similar faces, set 'face' option.<br />3) Combined Search<br /> Enter any keywords so that combined search, image plus keyword search, works.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />2. What we can do</span><br />1) Increase database<br /> We think the more image data we have, the better results we can return. Our search is based on similarity, so results are affected by the size of the database. I experience the results from 10 million images are much better than that from one million images. We're continuously crawling the web and the searchable data is increasing. Try our service after some interval.<br /><br />2) Limit types of query<br />Since our database consists of various images from the web and our algorithm purely rely on color and shape, different types of images are displayed as similar results. If type of database and queries are same, more relevant results can be returned. We're preparing new service that has specific database and I think search results would be more close to what you are expecting.<br /><br />3) Improve image recognition<br />It's ideal to develop algorithm that can detect everything in images. I don't know how many years, decade and centuries are required to make it come true, but technology is moving forward.GazoPahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13400496422344909505noreply@blogger.com0