A Simple Way to Specify Image Licenses

Google has recently added a Creative Commons filter in Google Image Search, but it didn't explain how to specify the license so that your images are properly identified.

The trick is to enclose the image and the license's link in a div tag and to use RDFa's about attribute to specify the resource. For example:

Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0

Filter Images by Aspect Ratio and Size

Google's image search engine constantly adds new features that help you filter search results. Here's a list of some new options that aren't yet available in the user interface:

1. New ways to specify image sizes

The current interface lets you find images that are small, medium, large or extra large, but you can't find 2 MP photos. Now you can restrict results to 2 MP, 4 MP, 6 MP, 8 MP, 10 MP, 12 MP photos or larger photos:

http://images.google.com/images?q=panda&imgsz=2mp

http://images.google.com/images?q=panda&imgsz=4mp

http://images.google.com/images?q=moon&imgsz=8mp

http://images.google.com/images?q=egyptian+pyramids&imgsz=12mp

2. Aspect ratio filter

A feature that's already available in Microsoft's image search engine and it's useful to find photos that have certain shapes.

Squared photos:
http://images.google.com/images?q=panda&imgar=s

Nearly squared photos:
http://images.google.com/images?q=panda&imgar=ns

Tall photos:
http://images.google.com/images?q=tour+eiffel&imgar=t

Wide photos:
http://images.google.com/images?q=niagara&imgar=w

Panoramic photos:
http://images.google.com/images?q=niagara&imgar=xw

Wide photos related to Niagara

Picasa Web Albums Lets You Block Users

Picasa Web Albums added some new features for managing your favorites and your fans. As you probably know, you can add any Picasa Web user as a favorite to get notified when he uploads new pictures. When you add him as a favorite user, you'll be included in his list of fans and he'll receive an email notification.

Until now, you couldn't remove users from the list of fans, but Google changed this: if the list of fans includes spammers, you can block them. Users "will be blocked from commenting on your photos and adding you as favorite. Blocking someone cannot be undone," mentions a warning. You can also block users who post offensive comments.


Picasa Web Albums added a list of "suggested favorites", which includes all your contacts that use Google's photo sharing service. It's a good opportunity to find interesting photos uploaded by your contacts and to add them to your favorites.

But if you can add users to a list of favorites, why is there no option to favorite images? Picasa Web added a link below each photo: "I like this" and the number of likes, but you can't keep track of the photos you like.

Report Offensive Google Images Results

Google Image Search, recently rebranded as Google Images, made it easier to change the SafeSearch filter by including a drop-down below the search box. The default option is "moderate", which excludes explicit images, but you can also disable SafeSearch or select the "strict" filter, which takes into account your keywords and the text from web pages.

Now you can also report offensive images that aren't filtered by SafeSearch. "Many users prefer not to have adult sites included in search results (especially if kids use the same computer). Google's SafeSearch screens for sites that contain explicit sexual content and deletes them from your search results. No filter is 100 percent accurate, but SafeSearch should eliminate most inappropriate material," explains Google.

The word "offensive" is pretty vague and Google doesn't define its scope, but you shouldn't use the new option for reporting irrelevant images or spam results.