Google Image Labeler

Google Image Labeler is a feature, in form of a game, of Google Image Search that allows the user to label random images to help improve the quality of Google's image search results.

Luis von Ahn developed the ESP Game, a game in which two people are simultaneously given an image, with no way to communicate, other than knowing the matching label for each picture or the pass signal. The ESP Game has been licensed by Google in the form of the Google Image Labeler, and is used to improve the accuracy of the Google Image Search.

Each user who wants to participate will be paired randomly with a partner who's currently online and also using Google Image Labeler. Over a 90-second period, both participants will be shown the same set of images and asked to label each image based on what they see. They'll also be shown words that can't be used as labels. Both participants can add as many labels as they want until one of them matches a partner's label. After there's a match, they'll see a new image and continue the cycle, until time runs out. Contributors will also see points they've earned throughout the session.

The game is not designed simply for fun. Though the feature is enjoyable for the users, it is also a clever way for Google to ensure that its keywords are matched to correct images. Each matched word will help Google to build an accurate database used when using the Google Image Search.

Without human tagging of images, Google Images search has in the past relied on the context of the image. For example, a photo that is captioned "Portrait of Bill Gates" might have "Bill Gates" associated as a possible search term. The Google Image Labeler relies on humans that tag the meaning or content of the image, rather than its context looking on at where the image was used. By storing more information about the image, Google stores more possible avenues of discovering the image in response to a user's search.

You can contribute and help Google to improve the relevance of image search results so that you and other Google users can quickly and easily find the results you're looking for.