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Xcavator: Image Search Refined

  • Pandia , Friday, March 14, 2008 1:34 PM
Xcavator is not your average image search tool--it's geared toward pros that need stock photography from companies like Fotolia and 123RF. With over six million images, Xcavator allows designers and art directors to compare stock photo prices from multiple sources to find the best deal--but the site's image search technology is what's really worth exploring.

Xcavator uses a combination of text-based and visual search to help users sort through the images. It starts with text-based search, as you add a query to the search box, and Xcavator brings up images related to the term. The Pandia team chose "wind mill" and got images of old-fashioned, modern, and toy wind mills.

After choosing an image, the tool allows you to match it to find others just like it--so choosing a modern wind mill would then bring up more modern-style choices. "Using this process I can refine my search several times, based on visual criteria and hardly any text," says the Pandia team.

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