Google Image Swirl, launched on November 17, 2009, was a visualization tool that organized image search results into a hierarchy of groups and sub-groups based on visual and semantic similarity. It is suggested that such interface and grouping can help resolve queries that can have multiple types of results, are ambiguous, such as Apple, Jaguar, etc., and explore images associated with various viewpoints. This feature is no longer available.
Bing concurrence
In September, 2009, a few weeks before Google Image Swirl appeared, Microsoft announced Bing Visual Search Beta. However, to explore pictures with Bing, you must use the Internet Explorer browser and you need to install Silverlight. Therefore, Bing Visual Search is available only in English.
Technical details
According to Google researchers Yushi Jing and Henry Rowley, and product manager Aparna Chennapragada, Google Image Swirl leverages both the text information and the "visual" features associated with the Web images (such as those developed for Google Similar Images) to determine how images should be grouped together.
External links
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