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Top 5 Alternative Search Engines For Discovering Great Images On Flickr

If you’ve ever surfed online for images, then you’ve undoubtedly heard of Flickr.com–the major online photo management site where you can upload, discover, and share your photos. Flickr is a great place to find some of the best images and photos on the web.

However, because there are so many uploaded images, Flickr becomes a bottomless resource that can be hard to search. Flickr does, indeed, allow you to tailor a search on the site. You can search for photos added by tags, place, sets, and galleries. You can also search by date–images recently added, added by month, or the most interesting uploads in the past 7 days. Flickr even lets you search for photos taken by a specific camera!

Although those search options are readily available, they can become a bit limited or inefficient at times when you can’t find what you’re looking for.

Ever spend hours trying to find the perfect image? Combing through the same tags over and over again? Clicking on each image for related leads? It’s like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

Fortunately, there are a few alternative search tools that can make for a more efficient search. So if Flickr’s usual search filters don’t cut it, try a few of these to get an image search that works for you.

1. Flickriver

Flickriver is a web-based viewer with one major difference from the original Flicker — it allows quick viewing of thousands of photos with a ‘river of photos’ option. This means you never have to click ‘next’ to load the upcoming, new page.

Since Flickriver is a part of Flicker, it allows viewing photos from Flickr members, taken by many different photographers, including both amateurs and professionals. You can click on any photo and get the official Flickr page where you can contact the photographer and see how you can use their images.

It’s probably the fastest photo viewing tool and because of its unusual and convenient viewing experience, Flickriver allows people to easily discover more relevant photographers and photos!

2. TinEye

TinEye is an image search and recognition company with its mission to make their images easily searchable and accessible to everyone. Their focus is on reverse image search, making it possible to find where your images appear online. Simply upload an image, search it by URL, or drag and drop your pictures to start your search. After a few seconds you will get instant results.

3. Picsearch

Picsearch helps you to search images more easily as it connects users to the wide visual resources of the internet. It uses a unique design technology to crawl the web and create a searchable index of discovered images.

How does it work? A user searches for an image after which a query is sent to Picsearch. The result is a set of thumbnail images that are as relevant as possible. If the user clicks on a thumbnail, the original website is opened where you can find where that image is placed.

With its 3 main features, Picsearch image tool stands apart from the rest of its competitors. It has a patent-pending indexing algorithm, as well as several family-friendly features that allow children to surf in safety. Any material that is not suitable for kids is separated by an advanced filtering systems. Last, but not the least, the site is user-friendly and perfect for fun and games, but also for serious business users.

4. Compfight

With Compfight you can get that visual inspiration you need to finish any project you are working on! It’s an image search engine, specifically designed to locate images for blogs.

The core of the Compfight experience lies in its various filters and amazing options. Combine that with a smart and easy-to-use tool and you will quickly discover all the images you need in the most efficient way possible.

5. Imgur

Imgur is a perfect place if you wish to share your images online and enjoy some of the most popular and awesome pictures you can find online. It’s being used by millions of people, every single day. You can get those amazing pictures and be entertained and motivated by funny, inspiring and helpful images and stories from all over the world in no time.

Imgur is currently ranked one of the top 50 worldwide websites where each month its images are viewed billions of times.

Regardless of which images you’re looking for, it’s always a good idea to have a few tricks up your sleeve when it comes to searching Flickr.com. If you can get creative with these search tools, you can quickly tailor down your search and navigate around Flickr’s databases even more efficiently in no time.

Need A PDF? Here Are A Few More Search Engines To Check Out. Finally!

Last year, PDF search engines were just breaking ground on the Internet. Back then, we were only able to find and review 3 PDF search engines—and all three were in beta. Needless to say, you couldn’t be particular about your tools or your search habits when there wasn’t much to choose from.

Fortunately, more than a year later, that has changed. Thanks to the continued development of online document management, essential tools, like document search engines, are gaining ground.

Now you can find more than just 3 PDF search engines.Here are a few more that we reviewed to add to the list.

PDFQueen

PDFQueen is a free unlimited PDF search and downloading engine with millions of documents in its database. To start searching for a PDF, you can use already inputted search term tags from their collection of Recent PDF Searches, or from their collection of Last PDF Searches by Countries.

Once you search, you’ll get a page that resembles a typical Google search result. Click on a file and you get a clean HTML version to preview directly on the site with the download link right above it.

Searches done by countries will give you a list of “popular ebooks” looked for by date, which might make tailored searches easier, but with a few more clicks.

PDF-Searcher

With one test run using PDF-Searcher, you’ll get the impression that this site is based on the social media user.To start, there are bookmarking and social network icons for quick access and linking with popular sites you use everyday.

PDF Searcher

Moreover, when you get your search results back, you not only have HTML and PDF previews, but also the option of previewing files in the popular Flash format powered by PDFMeNot.

Also, while the homepage may not offer suggested search tags, you’ll get those at the bottom of your results page if what you’ve typed in doesn’t give you the right results.

docjax

If you thought PDF Database.com was a bit more versatile, you’ll think this engine is a swiss army knife.Docjax gives you the option of searching for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files.For each search result, you can preview the file, download it and even rate it by clicking on the “Love It” icon.

Docjax beta

This site is a bit cleaner than most.It offerstag clouds, recommended books andthe usual “most viewed,” “most loved,” “most downloaded,” etc., in separate menus and drop boxes, like a regular website.

As to searching for the right file, you get handy .doc, .xls, .ppt, .pdf tabs to instantly switch your search from format to format without having to toggle and re-search.

Rapid4Me.com

While its name might bring to mind the popular torrent, this Rapidshare Search Engine is catered specifically to PDF files and not media. Rapid4Me PDF search engine is pretty decent.Like PDFQueen you get a handful of handy tags to start off with.

Once you search, you’ll get ranked results that take you to an immediate PDF preview in your browser. If that annoys you, you also have the option to preview an HTML version first.

PDF-search.org

PDF-Search.org combines different features of the other search engines into one.It has the social bookmarking and viewing options of PDF-Searcher; the added dropbox of PDFDatabase.com for PDF, DOC, and PPT search options; and the country tagging collection of PDFQueen.

To boot, like docjax, you can toggle between formats in your search with a simple click and still have the option of viewing them in Flash.

Take a careful look at each PDF search engine. When you have a number of them to choose from, you’re bound to find one that suits you, and not the other way around!

The ABCs Of The PDF: J-L

First off, my apologies. It has been awhile since the last posting in this series, and there is still yet more to uncover and discover. So for this posting, its about the figures behind the PDF world and information behind PDF links and some tips. If you’re stalking up on some backgrounder bits and PDF facts in preparation for the 2007 Conference, then by all means, read on.

John E. Warnock

The name, the man, the father behind the PDF, Dr. John E. Warnock. Along with Charles Geschke, he co-founded Adobe Systems, Inc. in 1982. Before that, he worked as a computer scientist at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1978, where he first developed the Post Script language (aka “Interpress” in its early Camelot development), the page description language which would be the building blocks of the PDF.

For the first two years of the company, Warnock served as president of Adobe Systems Inc. and then was CEO until his retirement from that position in 2000. Warnock has led an active career of achievements in computer technology, being highly distinguished in numerous associations and winner of countless awards for his innovation and influence. He is now co-chairman of Adobe with Charles Geshcke.

Also interesting to note is that he has an Adobe typeface named after him—Warnock Pro. Here is a quoted description: “Warnock Pro’s structure is both rational and dynamic, striking a balance between innovation and restraint.” I wonder if the look of the typeface design reflects his personality. . . .

Kurt Foss

As regular day-to-day PDF user, you hardly notice how quickly names can stick in your head—Kurt Foss being one of them. I first came upon Kurt Foss in the beginning of my PDF research, when I read many blogs and searched many articles (I still do). And his were among the top of the research piles.

And doing a bit of research on Foss himself, you’ll find that he has a major presence in the PDF world too. As a long time veteran of the PDF industry, his attraction to the PDF world was a passion for the format, a curiosity about the potential uses and users of the format: “I became increasingly aware of looming technological changes that seemed poised to change the way my profession worked. So I immersed myself in learning about it.” One of his most “notable notables,” in fact, was being one of the first to globally publish newspaper pages in the PDF format, experimenting with how the digital format could work for the printed word.

Foss started out as an Adobe evangelist with the company from 1993-2003 when Acrobat was still in its first version. Since then, he has been web editor of both PDFZone and Planet PDF, and has written articles on issues surrounding the uses of the PDF format. Currently, Foss is the online editor of the Acrobat User Community, a site you may have heard of or been to at one point or another for resources and tips. He has written numerous posts, commenting, reviewing and reporting anything and everything having to do with PDF.

Links

Linking within a PDF file itself is a great way in which to include more background content within your file. Yet, the hypertext link, itself, has a background history of its own, one associated with Vannevar Bush’s influential work ,“As We May Think.”

The paper contained the first rough concept of the computer, called the Memex, an idea which inspired the creation of the actual hypertext as we know it today. The term “hypertext” was first coined by Ted Nelson in 1965, and its invention is usually accredited to him and American scientist, Douglas Engelbart. In 1968, with Engelbart’s historic “Mother of All Demos,” the first hypertext interface was demoed. And by 1980, Tim Berners-Lee, also another famous name, created a hypertext database system, a system created out of a motivation that became the same driving force behind the World Wide Web and the Internet—to meet the demand of automatic information sharing. The implementation of such hypertext link databases in the late 80’s eventually led to the first stages of the World Wide Web.

Of course, needless to say, when you add links within your PDF, you create the same mini-network of information resources and sites. However, behind the convenience of endless information resources, is the frustration of usability. Web usability guru, Jakob Nielsen , has a few words on the use of links and the PDF, which might come in handy in making that PDF user-friendly and informative.

Hope this helps out with that small talk. ‘Till next time!