Revert to classic Google Image results?

January 23, 2007 9:54 PM

As of today, my Google Images search results only show image thumbnails and their titles (screenshot). I have to mouseover individual thumbnails to see their pixel size, file size, and URL. All image info was visible yesterday, and no changes or updates were made on my end. What happened and how do I fix this?
posted by cenoxo to computers & internet (14 comments total)

P.S. - I'm using current versions of Windows XP Pro and IE 6.
posted by cenoxo at 9:57 PM on January 23, 2007

It happened to me too, and while I can't find any information on it, i suspect it's a Google upgrade.
posted by b33j at 10:06 PM on January 23, 2007

Google updated images.google.

It doesn't look like they have a way to revert back to the old version.

If you're really set on seeing all the information, then you could write a Greasemonkey script to do so.

It also looks like google copied MS this time: Live search
posted by Sonic_Molson at 10:06 PM on January 23, 2007

This happened on my (infrequently used) laptop several months ago, but I thought it was a glitch until it appeared on my desktop PC today. I guess it's a new GI feature, albeit a poorly implemented one: much less info is displayed and it takes more work to browse through images.

Where's that universal Revert key when you need it?
posted by cenoxo at 10:29 PM on January 23, 2007

I hope there is a way to revert.

Not being able to quickly scan the originating websites of the images - not to mention the dimensions - really makes the site a whole lot less useful.

Is there an email address we can complain to?
posted by bubukaba at 11:21 PM on January 23, 2007

It looks like it's a feature not a bug: Google Image Search Has a Cleaner Look. I'd keep an eye on userscripts.org, somebody will write a greasemonkey script for this.
posted by octothorpe at 4:02 AM on January 24, 2007

From octothorpe's link : "This new design, heavily inspired by Windows Live Search, uses JavaScript, so if you disable JavaScript in your browser, you'll get the old version."
posted by tip120 at 5:30 AM on January 24, 2007

IIRC, Greasemonkey scripts work with FireFox but not with Internet Explorer.

Tried disabling Java in IE, but the 'new & improved' GI search results still appear. Even if it worked, switching Java back on for other sites would be a pain.
posted by cenoxo at 9:07 AM on January 24, 2007

Sounds like FireFox is the only solution.
posted by koeselitz at 9:35 AM on January 24, 2007

Not Java, JavaScript. They are completely different and unrelated things.

(And BTW you can try trixie to run greasemonkey scripts in IE.)
posted by Rhomboid at 11:26 AM on January 24, 2007

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/01/getting-old-google-image-search-back.html
posted by srt19170 at 7:58 PM on January 24, 2007

They updated it recently. It's annoying but you can fix it by disabling javascript.

www.lifehacker.com has a hack in the past few recent articles on just how to do this.
posted by PetiePal at 8:49 AM on January 25, 2007

The Internet Explorer 7 fix explained at srt19170's link also worked with IE6. Thanks!

This Google Groups thread probably has the most pertinent discussion, and apparently has the ear of Google.
posted by cenoxo at 7:48 AM on January 28, 2007

Apparently Google Images has changed things back to their original search results. My default browser settings (with Javascript enabled in IE and Firefox) again show pixel sizes and URLs under all thumbnails.

Note the Feb. 20, 2007 Google Operating System post, The Old Google Image Search Is Back.
posted by cenoxo at 11:22 AM on February 23, 2007