I was looking through the newly revamped Google webmaster tools and noticed some information about the enhanced image search and image labeler. I don’t know if this has always been here, but I hadn’t noticed it before. I signed a few of my sites up to use the image search and then went exploring a bit more.
A few clicks later I found myself at the Google Image Labeler, which is actually a rather fun tool to use. It doesn’t help your website in any specific way, but rather you are helping to build Google’s database of searchable images. Since a web spider can’t “look” at an image and decide what it is, Google needs real live humans do their evil bidding for them.
On the opening page, you are given an explanation of how the system works. Basically you assigned a partner that is at home somewhere on the internet, and you are both show the same image at the same time. You start typing words that describe the image, and when you and your partner type the same word, you are given points and then shown a new image. This goes on for two minutes. You are then shown your point totals, the words that your partner entered, daily rankings, etc.
Google has turned this into a pretty fun game to play. Sometimes your partner doesn’t really know what’s going on, or they don’t know how to spell (betteries, battaries, batteries) but I think they have found a great way to work this system.
I don’t know how the image search factors into your page analysis, or if your images have any actual weight for your page search, but it’s fun to play a few rounds.