Google Image Search returned to former usefulness

It seems that the people at Google may have been listening to that wide world of the web as I am pleased to notice that their image results now have the dimensions and other information displayed at all times. So now we have the dynamic layout and the information we need. Congratulations, Google.

I'm sure it was my post that sorted this problem out. No need to thank me.

P.S. The unnecessary two-click image size select combo box is still there though.

1 in 4 teenagers honest?

According this news article published on BBC.co.uk, "figures show one in four teenagers with access to the net view porn at least once a month."

So, does this mean that only 1 in 4 teenagers are honest?

Accidentally...

The same news article went on to quote another study which stated that "six in 10 children in the UK were regularly being exposed to porn, mostly as a result of viewing explicit websites accidentally."

This is, of course, complete rubbish. It is, in fact, quite difficult to get exposed to pornographic imagery using standard web search tools. Unless you click the little "Yes, I am over eighteen and I wanted to view potentially adult material" button. Which is not accidental.

The phrase "regularly exposed to porn" also raises an eyebrow. While unlikely, I'll accept that it may be possible to get a titillating eyeful by accident. But you cannot have a regular accident. Perhaps the Britney Spears remix has become a mantra for teenagers participating in such surveys: "Oops!... I Did It Again."

Wisdom from above

How far-reaching is the wisdom recorded in the Bible? It never ceases to amaze me just how perfect the counsel contained therein is.

Jehovah God could almost have had this thought written with Google and Yahoo et al in mind.

Amos 5:14

Search for what is good, and not what is bad.

Google Image Search takes another step backwards

Google Image Search has, for me, the most useful results of all the image search engines.

Some time ago it made it's functionality slightly worse with a combo box to select which size of image you wanted. This required two clicks (one to open the box, one to select) to select your size as opposed to the previous one click to select a link which was always displayed.

Recently, the functionality of the page was essentially removed altogether when all metadata was hidden from view. Now, instead of using your eyes to scan the page looking for the picture of the size you want, you have to use your mouse. The information regarding the picture dimensions are only displayed when the mouse is hovered over the picture.

The reasons for this change are fairly clear. Along with the mouse-over behaviour, the image results are formatted more cleverly allowing for more result per page on, for example, widescreen or large browser windows. Also, the results page looks very clean. This is because there is no information on it.

Google offers no preferences to adjust this behaviour.

However, this change can be undone by disabling Javascript for the images.google.com domain. A side benefit of this is that it also removes the combo box size selector and replaces them with much handier links. The disadvantage is a fixed number of results per line and page.

For me, I prefer to use my eyes to scan a page, not a mouse.

With Javascript:


Without Javascript: