Google Images Gets Major Facelift

Share your thoughts on the new page if you have them, I am always curious to know what the real bona fide technical people think about developments like this.

Google Images looks different today.

(SALEM, Ore.) - Google Images has changed overnight with a new look and layout. As a person who spends a lot of time going through images for our reports, I have to say I'm initially impressed, though it seems to need a little more tuning.

The Google Image section is laid out in a totally different manner, with solid rows of photos and artwork across the page. You can opt to view 'more results' and the number of images expands greatly, putting you in the scroll zone, which I think people accept in a general sense with Internet navigation. This request to expand the viewing area however was very slow to load on Firefox, though I think they deserve a few days tighten up their programming and run the bugs out.

The really cool thing, is that as you hover over an image, it pulls it out of the page and allows you to see the origin of the photo and a caption if there is one. Those looking for non-copyrighted images will enjoy this clearly improved aspect of Google Images.

Google isn't resistant to change; the group reminds me of a fine German car like a Mercedes Benz, where a good engineering design goes on and on, rather than always being replaced with a new look each year the way American auto manufacturers have typically operated.

Perhaps it goes back to the old saying, "If it isn't broke, don't fix it."

Personally, I didn't find myself cussing out the old image design very often, maybe once in while over dead links and that sort of thing, but it has been a great source from the time it was launched, as Google has been in an overall way since first being launched in September 1997 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page.

Since Google was launched, the homepage has been redesigned seven times. The video section changed when YouTube became part of the same company. Emphasis is always on YouTube though Google Video goes on being a viable video search engine.

Share your thoughts on the new page if you have them, I am always curious to know what the real bona fide technical people think about developments like this.

Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com