Google Images has undergone a major overhaul bringing in a 'dense tiled layout' along with instant scrolling and larger thumbnail previews .
Google images was launched right back in 2001, and according to Google has access to over 10 billion indexed images.
"Meanwhile, the quantity and variety of images on the web has ballooned since 2001, and images have become one of the most popular types of content people search for," explained Google Images product manager Nate Smith.
"So over the next few days we're rolling out an update to Google Images to match the scope and beauty of this fast-growing visual web, and to bring to the surface some of the powerful technology behind Images."
Google explains each of the changes, with the chief design overhaul intended to "get the app out of the way and let you find what you are really looking for".
Google's change list:
- Dense tiled layout designed to make it easy to look at lots of images at once.
- Instant scrolling between pages, without letting you get lost in the images. You can now get up to 1,000 images, all in one scrolling page. And we'll show small, unobtrusive page numbers so you don't lose track of where you are.
- Larger thumbnail previews on the results page, designed for modern browsers and high-res screens.
- A hover pane that appears when you mouse over a given thumbnail image, giving you a larger preview, more info about the image and other image-specific features such as "Similar images."
- Once you click on an image, you're taken to a new landing page that displays a large image in context, with the website it's hosted on visible right behind it. Click anywhere outside the image, and you're right in the original page where you can learn more about the source and context.
- Optimized keyboard navigation for faster scrolling through many pages, taking advantage of standard web keyboard shortcuts such as Page Up / Page Down. It's all about getting you to the info you need quickly, so you can get on with actually building that treehouse or buying those flowers.
