Contemplating Yahoo Images and Google Images

Recently I was putting together a presentation and I needed a few images of RSS buttons.

So I went to Google Images and searched for RSS Buttons. The results I got weren't very useful -- lots of screen shots, cartoons, and suchlike. I got tired of it and went to Yahoo Images.

Yahoo Images had far fewer results in the results count (just over 100) but the results were much more immediately useful -- actual RSS button images were the first few results. Using the size nav in the right corner (love the size nav in the right corner) I narrowed by results down to size small and got the images I was looking for.

A little surprised that Yahoo did so well when it had far fewer results, I went back to Google Images and ran the search again. A Google Images search for RSS Buttons has over 400 results but the first page of results was rubbish for what I was looking for. But when I went to the small results, I found exactly what I was looking for -- rows and rows of RSS buttons and their derivatives.

The lesson I'm taking away from this is that when searching Google Images, you may find that so many results are a bit of a handicap when you're searching for several different things -- what you want may not rise to the top -- so use a size element in your search whenever possible. (I wish they had a Wallpaper switch like Yahoo Images.)

Posted to Searching-Images