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Google Images Instant (inspired by Youtube Instant)

40 points| michaelhart | 15 years ago |cdn.michaelhart.me | reply

32 comments

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[+] andre3k1|15 years ago|reply
Most useful iteration of an "instant' copy i've seen thus far.

How many times have been searching for that ONE particular image, but not known what search query to input?

Both Google Instant and Google Images Instant will teach users how to search smarter. Great job, keep up the great work!

[+] michaelhart|15 years ago|reply
thanks for your feedback! this sort of stuff makes me smile to myself, and even though I probably look like a loser while doing so, I'm very thankful :)
[+] MC27|15 years ago|reply
Sorry to pick on this one, but are these posts going to keep appearing on Hacker News until every Google service is covered?
[+] photon_off|15 years ago|reply
Yes, probably. While I do hold a bit of contempt against the world that, IMO, these types of projects wouldn't get a shred of buzz if they hadn't ridden the coattail of some larger event[1], I'm still able to appreciate it for what it is: an experiment. Realize you have a choice to let the trend affect your judgment or not.

[1]: I understand that buzz is often a necessity for something to get noticed, but I find it "unjust" that buzz is often generated for the most trivial of reasons.

[+] eam|15 years ago|reply
Unlike your Map Instant, this one seems more usable and practical to me. Good job. :)
[+] rakkhi|15 years ago|reply
Thats pretty cool. Could you do one for Flikr creative commons? http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=&l=cc&ss=0&ct=0&...

I use it all the time for blog images, powerpoints for work etc

Loving all these instant search tools, will they stress the google servers beyond what they expected though? And if not will google eventually extend instant search to all their tools?

[+] michaelhart|15 years ago|reply
These tools are pretty intensive, but they're not getting THAT much traffic. After being on Mashable and TechCrunch, while it's getting a LOT of activity (so much so that my CDN is stressing out), it's probably a VERY small number of Google's total requests.

I will look into Flickr :) Thanks for the suggestion!

[+] systemtrigger|15 years ago|reply
> Could you do one for Flickr creative commons?

Here you go: http://bigfishsonar.com. It searches: Flickr, Twitter, YouTube and Google News/Images/Blogs.

I built v1 and another guy polished it up.

EDIT: I just realized it's not "instant" in the sense others are using the word. Guess I should've removed the search button and sent the ajax requests after every keystroke. Ah well, it's still pretty good.

[+] zmmz|15 years ago|reply
Way more useful than the maps version, thanks for this!

Feature request: to further mimic google instant, would it be possible to add autocomplete? Also, note that when the autocomplete box appears on google instant and you press the down arrow to select the result, you can then press the right arrow to do a "I'm feeling lucky".

Maybe you could add some additional keyboard shortcuts to instant image search, such as selecting results with the keyboard. Ideally I would want to select a result with the arrow keys and hit enter to go to it.

As most people here, I try to avoid the mouse.

Thanks again for this, funny thing is that I don't use the original google instant (as it does not work with the key bindings experiment) but your image search is something that I probably will.

[+] blhack|15 years ago|reply
Maybe this is offtopic, but are you Michael Hart, or Natalie Tran?

I clicked on the "I'm looking for a job too" link, which took me to your twitter, then clicked on your website. The website is for somebody named Natalie, but the twitter is for Michael?

[+] justinchen|15 years ago|reply
It says in his Twitter bio that he's a "Total Tran Fan."
[+] beaumartinez|15 years ago|reply
I think the way to make this stand out would be to "pile up" images depending on how long the user stays on a query (until the user presses enter). For example, if I want to search for potato, but type po and stay on that for a few seconds, pile up like ten results for Pokémon, and then once I finish my query, pile up the results for potato at the top, so the Pokémon results are at the bottom (so the most relevant results at top).

Or maybe have it constantly piling up images of the current query? (I'd code this myself but haven't the time at the moment.)

[+] michaelhart|15 years ago|reply
I like this idea a lot! I will definitely see about working it in :) Sounds simple, too. Love it!
[+] albertzeyer|15 years ago|reply
It doesn't seem to work in all cases. When I enter "openlierox" (a 2D game), it does not show any pictures of the game at all; in fact, it does not change anymore after "openli".
[+] michaelhart|15 years ago|reply
If I'm not mistaken, the letters after the i are causing the suggestions from Google Suggestions to come back empty, giving a null variable.

I haven't figured out why yet, but I do know all xxx-related terms will return null as well. Maybe Google is confused?

[+] tpr1m|15 years ago|reply
In my opinion, much more useful than the real google instant. It would be cool if you added a way to manage your safe-search preferences too.
[+] michaelhart|15 years ago|reply
sadly, the google suggestion "api" (lol, it's not really an API, hah) will not work with any obscene terms. There's no way to enable it at all :(

sorry if that's a disappointment. let me just say, "null" is the most common page accessed, and well, that's typically what is displayed for xxx-related terms :)

[+] vkdelta|15 years ago|reply
Good stuff! but for some reason the results are not the same as google image search.Any idea why is this happening?
[+] beaumartinez|15 years ago|reply
Perhaps locale differences?
[+] metachris|15 years ago|reply
I would love to see stats about the queries of the first 24 hours!
[+] zandorg|15 years ago|reply
That's pretty amazing. Worked great for me!
[+] Judson|15 years ago|reply
Got a job yet?
[+] michaelhart|15 years ago|reply
I've gotten a few offers :) But unfortunately, I haven't made any decisions. On a blunt note, I haven't heard from Google. Sadface.