Documentation

Please Note: Although this project makes use of Google's image search it is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google in any way.

Methodology

Simply, this is a project exploring a dataset derived from the data presented by Google Image Search.
A search is conducted in all current registered google domains all over the world and search results are compared for their content and source domain to determine a mapping of search terms and in an attempt to develop more complete knowledge about the results. Six interfaces are presented in this project to express the idea of exploration.

1. The stacked or "iceberg" interface:
In the design heiarchy of the google search results page, we can see that the page numbers are at the very bottom of the page, and may fall below the fold on some screens. This is counterintuitive to the amount of results Google claims to offer. This interface places a stack of pages to the left of the window so that the amount of information is more concretly represented, and navigation to further pages more direct.

2. The map interface:
Google has over 160 sites in different countries over the world. Each country's results are different due to usage patterns and legal restrictions. In the United States, users are in the unique position to visit google searches all over the world. By looking and exploring these different sites through a map, users get a sense of both the variety, therefore lack of objectivity that is mistakenly attributed to the search engine. Users can also explore content and their own interests by conducting searches.

3. The grid interface:
This interfaces presents search results from all 160 countries simutaneously on the same screen. It gives users a larger sense of the search term than the original interface and also shows how patterns disinagrate and form over the span of heiarchy.

4. The translator:
The translator converts user input sentences to a sentence of images. Each word is translated to the top google image result for that word and placed back in the sentence. A string of images are formed, but is it a sentence? If Google images are the most likely to be seen images for given words, does it mean that image search is a language? a grammar?

5. Timeline:
In this interface, when a search term is entered, years are attached to the term before it is searched. It is intended to give results that have a potential to span 100 years. For some, it is simply a variation, a different way to search. For others, timelines are formed and the search is placed in greater context.

6. English/Chinese >>.com/.cn
The duel language interface uses the translation services provided by Google to search in both English and Chinese in the country sites of the United States and China. Results are sometimes suprisingly similar, but sometimes tellingly different.

Country Documentation
The current list of internationl websites are determined by country code top level domains(cctld) according to the International Standard Organization against the domain name Google. This list is updated periodically as new domains are established.

Data Documentation
Visualizations are made based on search results as they appear in image search results pages of Google. Rights to images that appear in visualizations belong to their individual source websites. Printed visualizations using images that appear on results pages are not used in any way other than academic.

Code Documentation
Downloadable files of code coming soon.