Sunday, May 30, 2010

Some Large Google Image Search bugs

Here are some large Google Image Search bugs.
Bug #1: Page Rank for images

In Google Image Search, run this search:
ice cream. The first results page displays 9 out of 20 images containing ice cream cones.

In my opinion, other types of ice cream probably sh
ould have equal or higher page rank:
  • ice cream cakes
  • ice cream bars
  • ice cream sundaes
  • ice cream sandwiches
  • ice cream shakes
  • ice cream scoops
See my earlier post: Is Google Page Rank supposed to be objective?

Bug #2:
Incorrect image exclusion operator

Exclude vanilla from your ice cream search results by entering these keywords:
ice cream -vanilla.
Here are the results:


The first row incorrectly contains mainly vanilla. The exclusion operator should exclude, not include, vanilla.

A similar bug appears if you try to exclude chocolate.

Try this search: ice cream -chocolate. Here are the results which is a bug:


The results incorrectly display chocolate.

Try this search to exclude cones: ice cream -cone. Here are the results for the first two rows of images..

The bug is that 7 out of 8 of the highest ranking images contain cones. Cones are supposed to be excluded.

The image search exclusion operator bug not only fails to exclude, but it may tend to have the opposite effect by emphasizing what it is designed to exclude - at least for the images with the highest page rank.

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