Internet giant Google has announced that its new image search algorithm will make finding images simpler.During a web conference in Beijing, the search engine provider unveiled a new tool which is designed as a means of ranking images in order of importance.
According to the Times, image search has presented a problem for technology firms because search engines are not yet capable of deciphering objects within pictures that would be instantly recognisable to humans.
However, Google believes that it has devised a more effective approach to the problem.
The tool used in Google Image Search works by recognising a particular visual theme or pattern in a series of images.
Its relative importance is then analysed on the basis of how similar it is to other images which also contain the theme.
The example cited by the Times involves the golden arches associated with McDonalds.
According to the publication, Google Image Search would draw up a set of links between images containing the familiar golden arches and rate those which showed the "typical yellow M" the most highly.
Commenting on the new offering, Google researcher Shumeet Balujaz stated: "By treating images as web documents and their similarities as probabilistic visual hyperlinks, we estimate the likelihood of images [being] visited by a user traversing through these visual hyperlinks."
A team of 150 Google employees has been working on the creation of the scoring system for the relevance of images.
