Increased number of image search results

KimLaughton

Provide a larger number of results for image searches

Part of the reason that Google has got worse over the years is the decreased number of results provided for an image search. You used to be able to scroll for pages and now you get a relatively limited selection. Unintuitively a more specific search ('daffodil red' vs just 'daffodil' for eg) gives you far more images.

I'm sure this is done to save costs but very often I know there is far more imagery on a subject I'm searching for and I'll never be able to find it.

I would hope that by paying for a search engine I'd get a larger number of results, but with Kagi I generally get far less than Google (presumably also to save costs). I can understand running the searches isn't free and it's all a balance, but it makes it harder to justify the monthly fee if I have to put up with generally lower performance than Google.

Vlad

KimLaughton Yes everythingis a matter of balance so that we can afford to run the service at low cost for users.

I counted 230 images returned on average for a search query. How much is enough? 🙂 If what you need is not in those 230 images, perhaps changing the query might be better?

KimLaughton

Vlad

Sorry – I didn’t notice this reply until now! How much is enough depends on the search of course – in many cases if you are simply trying to see what a searched for thing looks like then a single result will be enough. If however you are trying to find reference images for creating something else or want to get a feel for a location or topic (among many other situations) you need more options. This is especially true when the majority of the image results for a specific search might be essentially identical, with the few you are actually interested in scattered among them.

Take the search ‘medieval art’ for example, a topic where perhaps you don’t really know what you are looking for but want to get a feel for the subject. Kagi gives 200 ish results and Google gives over 700 (after clicking on the ‘show more results’ button). On google there are also related images under the one you click on which is an incredibly useful feature when searching for a subject like this.

I think generally with text searches the results are acceptable – probably because with text most searches are either looking for a specific page or an answer to a specific question. With image results I’m often left needing what Google offers because I'm using the image search in different ways - and I expect I'm not alone.

Vlad

KimLaughton Makes sense, let me see what we can do.

KimLaughton

Vlad

I expect copying the ‘show more results’ button functionality would be worthwhile – in the majority of cases people would get what they needed without using it. If they did use it, it would be no more expensive than if they had run the search again with a different term. It would also let you know how often people did want more images.

pdf

This thread says closed as Done, but image results still seem extremely limited, with no way to obtain more results.

Vlad

pdf We have plans to extend this. How many images are you getting?

pdf

Vlad about 200-300, a result count wouldn't go astray either.