A few months back google switched from their old Image search to a new one where the preview is shown within the search results by opening up a box. It’s a Content First move from google and it works really well. To begin with:
- It allows the user to stay on the same page and see the results in a larger format / size
- Shows small thumbnails of the related images and strips the description that surrounds them
- Gives a clear buttoned approach to view the web page, the full resolution image or image details
- Image detail page actually gives further options to search the same image by size, look for similar images and snippets of the content associated with the images
On the annoying side, being creatures of habit, one will find constantly hitting the back button during preview and the page roll back in history loosing the search results, I guess it’s an easy fix that will get rolled in later or the users will get used to this mode and use the mouse more often than the keyboard.
Google’s new Image Search with in page previews