Google Image Ads

Google calls the process VisualRank, after the company's signature PageRank technology

VisualRank, is an algorithm that blends image-recognition software methods with Google's own process for weighting and ranking images that appear similar.

Image search technology isn't new, of course. Social network Flickr, now a part of Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), uses tagging to collect photos into relevant bunches. And both Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), at Live.com, and Google already have engines tuned to search for images. The problem is one of irrelevant results.

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