Google Image Labeler Provides Minutes Of Fun
Google is hoping its faithful search engine users will do two things: One, stay with Google in the wake of a Microsoft-Yahoo merger talk. Two, help Google Image Search grow and become a better search enging for photos and graphics online.
Google’s carrying out the latter of the two by launching the Google Image Labeler, a game of sorts in which a person tags a random image taken from the Internet with certain keywords. A second person, chosen at random by Google, is pitted against you while you quickly try to tag an image with different keywords—once you and your opponent tag the image with the same keyword, a score is shown and a new image is pulled up. This continues until the elapsed time of two minutes expires.
Points are granted based on the complexity of a keyword you and your opponent give an image. Typing “Google” for the screenshot above may result in 30 points, while typing “Mountain View-based search engine company” may result in 150 points. The more detailed and specific, the better your score, so long as you and your partner match on the word. There is no specific rule on correctness, so you may be able to tag a photo of George W. Bush with “douchebag” and earn a high score, so long as you and your opponent both tag the soon-to-be-former US President with the word “douchebag.”
A few weekends ago, when the Super Bowl became boring, I gave Google Image Labeler a try and it provided me with five minutes of pointless entertainment before I moved on to something else. Captivating like Microsoft Solitaire? Not quite. But it’s an occasional fun program to try.
In my past life, I was a tree or something. If not a tree, something that grew old and didn't move very much. I'm pretty convinced of this.