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Cool Google Hack: Find Images by Color

Mark Edward Soper — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:38:26 -0500

Another reason why Google has left its competitors way, way behind in the search engine race: Friday, a post on the (unofficial) Google Operating System blog noted that you can now restrict Google image searches by specifying one of twelve different colors:

red, blue, green, teal, purple, yellow, orange, pink, white, gray, black, brown

Only images that contain the specified color will be listed in the search results. Officially, you must use a command-line search in your browser's address bar to use this new feature, using the following syntax:

http://images.google.com/images?q=SEARCHTARGET&imgcolor=COLOR

[Replace SEARCHTARGET with what you're searching for and COLOR with the color you want to see in the images]

Here's an example that displays train photos containing the color yellow:

http://images.google.com/images?q=train&imgcolor=yellow

Here's an example that displays Union Pacific train photos containing the color gray:

http://images.google.com/images?q="Union Pacific" train&imgcolor=gray

[The spaces are replaced by the character string %20 in the web browser address bar when you enter the search: http://images.google.com/images?q="Union%20Pacific"%20train&imgcolor=gray]

That's a lot of typing, but the Google Operating System blog entry includes a simple drop-down menu you can use to perform your search (the results open in a new window). Hopefully it won't take long for Google to add this feature to its standard advanced image search, but it's still a very powerful image search tool.

Do you have other tips for using Google Image Search? Hit Comment and share your discoveries.

Microsoft’s Cashback Program is Slow to Produce Results

Justin Kerr — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 16:48:28 -0500

Microsoft’s quest for online dominance it would seem, will take more than just cash to realize. The aborted Yahoo deal was but a small part of a multifaceted approach towards capturing long term search engine market share, the most lucrative of which involves e-commerce. For those who can’t remember back that far, on May 21st 2008 Microsoft announced plans to offer consumers cash back for transactions with select e-retailers which were found using the Live search engine. The comScore US market share results show a slight increase after the first month which represents a boost of about 0.7%. But July’s results saw the search engine give back 0.3% to its competitors. Even though the promotion has only been running for about two months, tech critics seem to think the idea is already running out of steam and express doubt that it will have any meaningful long term gains. It remains to be seen if Microsoft will continue the program as it may see any gain in market share to be a success. This seems even more likely when you consider how slowly search engine market share moves these days. To put it in perspective, during the same two month period Google’s market share rose only 0.1% to 61.8% and Yahoo dropped, but only by 0.1% to 20.5%. According to eMarketer Inc., U.S. online retail sales are projected to grow to about $335 billion by the year 2012. Even today, 68 percent of all online transactions began through a search engine.

Do you think Microsoft can make a comeback with cashback? Click the jump and let us know.

Microsoft Live Search Tweaks Its Offerings, Search Logic for the Beijing OIympics

Mark Edward Soper — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:02:16 -0500

Just in time for the start of the Olympics, Neowin.net reports that Microsoft's Live Search has added many new features to help you keep track of what's happening in Beijing:

Live Search News now includes a direct link to Beijing 2008 Olympics news.
The new xRank Live Search page features an Olympics category where you can track the popularity and news coverage of individual athletes.
Select Video from the Live Search home page and enter Olympics (or follow this link) to search for Olympics-related videos.
Enter an Olympic athlete's name in Live Search, and Live Search will display Olympics-related information first, a feature Microsoft calls Athlete Instant Answer.
Microsoft has also tweaked how searches for Olympics-related keywords work. Search for events such as "swimming" or "USA basketball" and you'll see the latest medal count for the event or the country once the events begin, a feature know as Medal Instant Answer.
And, to round off the Olympic-friendly repackaging of Live Search for Beijing 2008, Microsoft plans to display various Olympics-related images as backgrounds on the Live Search home page http://www.live.com/.

Note that some of these features might not take effect until Olympics competition begins.

The changes to Live Search are convenient if you're a fan of the Olympics, but how do you feel about a search engine's tweaking its results according to current events? Do you like the idea, or does it smack of a bit of "Big Brother?" Let us know what you think.

Netscape Navigator, RIP (and More Blasts from the Past)

Mark Soper — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 23:26:31 -0600

BBC News reports that AOL is preparing to shut down development of Netscape Navigator, the dominant web browser of the mid-1990s, as of February 1, 2008. The Netscape Blog provides a roundup of options for existing Netscape 9.x users (v9 was introduced, ironically enough, just a month ago) and a recap of Netscape's recent history. However, if you're a relative newcomer to the Web, you might not understand the importance of Netscape to the Internet, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

From Mosaic to Netscape to Mozilla

Netscape Navigator wasn't the first successful web browser; that honor goes to Mosaic, developed by Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina in 1993 for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois. Andreesen went on to help develop Netscape Navigator, which rapidly replaced Mosaic when it was introduced in 1994.

Early in its history, Netscape Navigator was known as Mosaic Navigator, but the company changed its name from Mosaic Communications Corporation to Netscape Communications. The 'Mozilla' name, now used by the development team for Firefox, which has superseded Navigator as the leading alternative to Internet Explorer, was originally used as a code name for Navigator during its development.

From Leader to Vanished Relic

The Answers.com website provides an excellent history of the rise and fall of Netscape Navigator. A chart on the page says it all: at its peak in 1996, virtually everyone surfing the web used some version of Netscape Navigator, which was available for virtually every PC and Unix platform. However, by 1999, Internet Explorer, which had gone from being virtually unusable in early versions to a better product than Navigator in IE5, had reduced Navigator's share to 40%. By 2002, Navigator's market share had essentially vanished.

Navigator is Dead! Long Live Navigator!

If you're still a Netscape Navigator fan, you can still enjoy the look and feel of Netscape Navigator 9 after February 1, 2008: download the Netstripe theme for Mozilla Firefox to make it mimic your favorite browser. Archived versions of 'classic' (pre-Mozilla) Netscape Navigator browsers from versions 2.x through 4.x are available from the Netscape Archived Products page. Modern versions of Netscape Navigator (4.78-9.x) are available here.

For many readers, Netscape Navigator is a real blast from a distant past. Let's return to 2007 for more of my favorite entries from the Windows blog (see page 2). Catch part 1 of my "best of 2007" series here.

6. Microsoft's Stealth Update of Windows Update Backfires - Big Time This posting from the beginning of October garnered 8 diggs and several comments from frustrated users. It ushered in a series of postings I did about nagging problems with Windows Update and the "improvements" it pushed to unwilling Windows XP users, including Send Windows Desktop Search Packing - Now! and Bedeviled by IE Browser Crashes? Try These Fixes.

5. Broken Windows Fixed Quick with Dial-a-Fix This September posting about a great utility for fixing Windows problems brought several Diggs, some heavy discussions about why utilities like this are useful, as well as a note from the developer himself.

4. The Little Vendor That Could - The Latest In the Mandriva vs Microsoft Saga was a popular one with readers, garnering 9 Diggs. It provides a rare look at the bare-knuckle, no-holds-barred nature of the Windows versus Linux battle for global dominance.

We'll wrap up the series on Monday (the last day of the year) with my top three posts from 2007.

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Learn more about Mark's books and upcoming projects. Drop by www.markesoper.com.