2 YAY Google Image Labeler...

YAY Google Image Labeler, YAY ESP, YAY Rice Game...

As a new blogger, I am commonly searching Google images and creative commons projects for pictures that support whatever I'm blogging about. I usually do keyword searches based on emotions or actions I want to convey. For the first post on this blog, I searched for "yelling" and "bitching." For this post I simply searched for "YAY."

I get a lot of garbage doing this, but I also get a few gems. Take for example the toddler to the left. Arms outstretched, mouth open in a squeal. According to the file name (yay-new-shoes.jpg) she is happy with her new shoes.

So this is likely not a product of the Google Image Labeler or ESP programs. The search result came from the file name. Other images I saw, came from content and text near the image. So the images you see on this blog are the results of user tagging and labeling.

Nonetheless, it's exciting to anticipate the results of projects like Google Labeler and ESP. Image searching should become much more accurate. Instead of relying on the individual who uploads the image to label and tag in a way that is useful, Google Image Labeler and ESP harness the power of "the crowd" to determine appropriate tags.

And yes, I do find both games addictive. If you still have not played, here is the low down.

1. You are paired with an anonymous partner
2. Each of you see an image and begin typing in labels for that image. Sometimes there are words that are off limited. These are generally words that others have picked and are the most obvious. For example, on the image of the little girl above, off-limits words may be: girl, dress, and shoes.
3. When you both pick the same label, you earn points and move on to the next image
4. You have two minutes to match labels for as many images as you both can

ESP was the original game (I'm not sure if Google stole the idea or not). ESP has expanded to include music and video identification. I have had lots of fun playing all of these games.

I got a little bored with the rice game. In this game you answer academic questions to earn rice to relieve hunger in Africa. There was not enough action for me. And by action, I mean I was playing against a computer. Sure I wanted to score as high as I could, but there is something about playing with another person that compels me. That, and I don;t really understand how playing an academic game helps to donate rice to Africa. I smacks of slacktivism to me.

Nonetheless, this is not just crowd sourcing. These projects don't depend (solely) on altruism or highly motivated people to lend their expertise/creativity/solutions. No, these are games. The whole idea that problems--whether world problems or world wide web problems--can be solved through gaming is interesting and exciting indeed.