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.
Google did trials to include advertisement in their image search and 'trials showed that text ads drove people away from conducting image searches, and Google dropped that idea' 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.
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.
Google experimented display ads in 2008. 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 Cooliris 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 GazoPa.com.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
A Tip of Bookmarklet
We 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.
Our bookmarklet can be installed here 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.
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.
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.
But if you use bookmarklet, just hover mouse on the images and a search button comes out. It's much more convenient.
For installing bookmarklet, click here or click 'Tool' on the top page and click 'Plug-in'.
Our bookmarklet can be installed here 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.
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.
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.
But if you use bookmarklet, just hover mouse on the images and a search button comes out. It's much more convenient.
For installing bookmarklet, click here or click 'Tool' on the top page and click 'Plug-in'.
Monday, January 4, 2010
The reason to search for images
Why 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 Quancast, 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 85 million unique visitors in the USA, so Google images are the fourth largest Google product after google search, maps and YouTube.
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 Laurie Sullivan's blog, 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.'
Image search Queries to the Bing
40% commercial searches, such as travel and shopping
44% science and nature and fashion, as well as tattoos
16% entertainment, from movies and television to video games and celebrities
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.
Above data is that of image search by keyword. The number of Search by upload image is largest search queries at GazoPa. 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.
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 Laurie Sullivan's blog, 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.'
Image search Queries to the Bing
40% commercial searches, such as travel and shopping
44% science and nature and fashion, as well as tattoos
16% entertainment, from movies and television to video games and celebrities
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.
Above data is that of image search by keyword. The number of Search by upload image is largest search queries at GazoPa. 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.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Some questions about uploaded images
We 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 FAQ.
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.
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 here.
"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."
If there is any question about our service, please feel free to contact us contact (at) gazopa.com.
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.
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 here.
"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."
If there is any question about our service, please feel free to contact us contact (at) gazopa.com.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
A Tip for better search results
Our 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.
1. What you can do
1) Search Option
Try search options ; shape, layout and color.
2) Face Search
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.
3) Combined Search
Enter any keywords so that combined search, image plus keyword search, works.
2. What we can do
1) Increase database
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.
2) Limit types of query
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.
3) Improve image recognition
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.
1. What you can do
1) Search Option
Try search options ; shape, layout and color.
2) Face Search
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.
3) Combined Search
Enter any keywords so that combined search, image plus keyword search, works.
2. What we can do
1) Increase database
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.
2) Limit types of query
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.
3) Improve image recognition
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.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
How many images on the web?
How many images are there on the web? No one knows exact figure. I have some data from photo sharing service as follows. Not all images on photo sharing services can be searchable, because some images are not open to public. Considering other photo sharing service such as Picasa and TwitPic and other sites that have images related news, shopping and travel etc, it may be said that four or five billion images are newly added to the web at least.
facebook 15 billion 220 million new photo per week May, 2009
flickr 4 billion 100 million new photo per month Oct, 2009
photobucket 7.5 billion June, 2009
Some images are piqued other people's curiosity such as images of Michael Jackson and Hudson river plane crash etc. Some images are too personal to be interested by general people. Photos of parties grab its participants' attention only, unless celebrities attend them. Obviously, the number of searchable images are important, but navigating users to their interested images are crucial as well. Some users are willing to see images related to shopping. Other users are eager to find images about latest news. Each user has different interest and we need to satisfy these variety of interests.
Current GazoPa.com is for general purpose use and is trying to satisfy as many types of people as possible. That's why we have filter options like news tab, video tab and flickr tab. It aims to be one stop solution to users. But we also think there should be specific type of sites that suit for specific demand. Besides improving functionalities of Gazopa.com, we're building special sites for specific needs. It'll be released at the beginning of next year. Stay tuned!
facebook 15 billion 220 million new photo per week May, 2009
flickr 4 billion 100 million new photo per month Oct, 2009
photobucket 7.5 billion June, 2009
Some images are piqued other people's curiosity such as images of Michael Jackson and Hudson river plane crash etc. Some images are too personal to be interested by general people. Photos of parties grab its participants' attention only, unless celebrities attend them. Obviously, the number of searchable images are important, but navigating users to their interested images are crucial as well. Some users are willing to see images related to shopping. Other users are eager to find images about latest news. Each user has different interest and we need to satisfy these variety of interests.
Current GazoPa.com is for general purpose use and is trying to satisfy as many types of people as possible. That's why we have filter options like news tab, video tab and flickr tab. It aims to be one stop solution to users. But we also think there should be specific type of sites that suit for specific demand. Besides improving functionalities of Gazopa.com, we're building special sites for specific needs. It'll be released at the beginning of next year. Stay tuned!
Why is it called GazoPa?
When people heard our name 'GazoPa', some responded that it was weird. Maybe. It may sound weird for people other than Japanese. We are also asked often meaning of GazoPa during conferences, so I'd like to tell you why it's called GazoPa. GazoPa comes from Japanese as you may know and Gazo means pictures and Pa is a mimetic word that describes speed of action. So, GazoPa means pictures are displayed quickly. Speed of search is one of major characteristics of our service and our name shows this feature, although only Japanese can understand background of our name. Our intention to help users to find pictures in fast speed is implied in this name.
When people heard name of new service especially in the field of Web2.0, it always sounds weird, because major name are already registered or major domain names are taken by other people, so new service needs to avoid existed ones. Besides this, shorter names such as five or six characters are preferred in Web2.0, considering the number of keys users need to type. Simple names are already taken, so new names are made from a couple of words.
When people hear the current major Web2.0 services at the first time several years ago, it might sound weird as well. But when services are getting popular, no one say these names are weird, because these names are commonly used and people get accustomed to them. So, only history will prove if name is really weird or not.
When people heard name of new service especially in the field of Web2.0, it always sounds weird, because major name are already registered or major domain names are taken by other people, so new service needs to avoid existed ones. Besides this, shorter names such as five or six characters are preferred in Web2.0, considering the number of keys users need to type. Simple names are already taken, so new names are made from a couple of words.
When people hear the current major Web2.0 services at the first time several years ago, it might sound weird as well. But when services are getting popular, no one say these names are weird, because these names are commonly used and people get accustomed to them. So, only history will prove if name is really weird or not.
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