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Google Image Search

Anyone know why when I search images in Google Image Search, in this example, the input is "Google", it says there are about 872.000.000 results. Then some images are thumnailed display together with a "Show More Results" button. But even when I click on that button, the results turn out only a thousand of images only.

Anyway for me to get the full results?

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Possible dupe? webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/14972/… – dsolimano Jun 21 '11 at 12:33

migrated from superuser.com Jun 21 '11 at 7:20

2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

No - the number is just an approximation.

When you perform a search, the results are often displayed with the information: Results 1 - 10 of about XXXX.

Google's calculation of the total number of search results is an estimate. We understand that a ballpark figure is valuable, and by providing an estimate rather than an exact account, we can return quality search results faster.

In addition, when you click on the next page of search results, the total number of search results can change. In this case, we realize that some of the query results are duplicates, and collapse those duplicates so that you can find the specific result you're looking for more easily. Collapsing the duplicates decreases the estimated number of results, as well as the overall number of results pages.

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I think this is not a good behavior if they always limit the number of results to more or less 1000 only. In case user want more they should show more. In my point of view, some common keywords should return really large amount of search results (such as flower, book...) and I think tons of different pictures are existing out there on the Internet! – user11656 Jun 21 '11 at 9:58
up vote 1 down vote

Google result counts are a meaningless metric. Aside from the collapsing of duplicates, you also have stemming, the way that the counts are calculated in the first place by multiplying frequencies, and the fact that Google imposes a cap that sets the maximum number of results that will ever be returned.

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