Google Image Swirl

gtoledo3's picture

I am finding this to be a bit hypnotic and cool...

http://image-swirl.googlelabs.com/

Click through on a result until you get the "image swirl" search representation style.

cybero's picture
Re: Google Image Swirl

This is very similar in approach to the visual thesaurus, albeit Flash rather than Java driven. Looks cool, works nicely.

dust's picture
Re: Google Image Swirl

yeah thats cool. have you guys seen the sproutcore implementation like this.

http://papercube.peterbergstrom.com/

its a similar search that can visualize the node tree made in javascript.

mradcliffe's picture
Re: Google Image Swirl

Ooooh, ring menus. That reminds me of Secret of Mana.

(saw this thread on my test site on an upgraded kineme.net and almost replied to it there ;-)

gtoledo3's picture
Re: Google Image Swirl

Oh, btw, I wondered if noticed my hits on yours and smokris's test sites ...though smokris's is password protected ;-)

gtoledo3's picture
Re: Google Image Swirl

Lol...yours is password protected too now.

dust's picture
Re: Google Image Swirl

man i know i commented on this and checked it out but didn't realize how useful it is until today (texture hunting). i wonder when google will integrate this into their regular search. this kind of viewing makes so much faster to find what your looking for and other things of the same associations. i like how things are grouped by your search term and then how google suggests other semantic categories.

cybero's picture
Re: Google Image Swirl

This is Flash based , so an alternate means of providing such a search facility and layout suggests itself as being desirable, given the growing number of web browsing non Flash or Flash is slow devices out there.

Given the growing pre-ponderance of HTML 5 capable browsers on the desktop and consumer devices, it would hardly be surprising that we see this sort of facility being rolled out shortly, in HTML 5 / CSS .

Very reminiscent of the Java based Visual Thesaurus.

bAjA's picture
Re: Google Image Swirl

This reminded me of this way cool browser plugin http://www.cooliris.com if you don't know it check it out... It may not be as clever, but it sure wins on looks and the fun factor...

cybero's picture
Re: Google Image Swirl

bAjA, do you know what really bites with cooliris? [which the Google swirl also reminds me of]

It has to run Safari in 32 bit mode is what :-).

A pity.

It could definitely be developed into the kind of interface demoed by Google, after all they both give a 3d feel, but it is usually a much simpler setup on the backend with cooliris [local files in site / desktop / folders].

Cooliris is a beautiful fluid grid interface. I love it.

The Google Swirl & Visual Thesaurus interface are a different level of visual communication altogether, especially on the applications backend, currently limited to the demo search terms, but imagine that as a default search mode in one's browser, no plugin required.

Sweet [er] I think.