Saturday, June 12, 2010

A Large Google Image Search Bug

Here's a large Google Image Search bug. These searches contain two keywords: 1) an instance, and 2) the exclusion of a broad including category.

Search for roses excluding flowers:

rose -flower
16 out of 20 of the images displayed are roses.

Search for ants excluding insects:

ant -insect
20 out of 20 of the images displayed are ants.

Search for circles excluding shapes:

circle -shape
18 out of 20 of the images displayed are circles.

The bug is the following: Google Image search does not understand simple semantic relationships.

The image search algorithm does not know a rose is a flower, an ant is an insect, and a circle is a shape.