So, I was totally going to post about something else tonight, but last minute paused and thought this would be a rather informative topic. I kinda pride myself on being able to find stuff through Google in seconds or minutes. For example, the other night I discovered that Kristen Stewart, the girl from Twilight, was also the same girl in Panic Room with Jodie Foster. I remember thinking that she looked very boy-like in that movie and wanted to see a picture then and there. I quickly googled “Kristen Stewart + Panic Room”. I then switched over to the image search option at the top of the Google search panel and found the pic I wanted to see in under 30 seconds.

Anything and everything related to that phrase will show up. As you can see from a google search on “Swelldesigner”, you see stuff I have on Flickr, Cafepress, Curbly, and other blogs and sites that I’ve been featured.

This is an absolutely awesome tool for you at your fingertips and it has provided me with a wealth of information. For example, when I’m doing trend or project research for my job or myself, I simply type in key phrases like “cool packaging” or “upcycled crafts”. It really helps you be able to locate stuff much quicker than having to wade through tons of web pages.

A couple things worth noting about the image search:
–If you copy your image to your hard drive, make sure to select the “See full size image” option. It will give you the largest resolution size possible for that image.

– There’s a pull down menu on the main page that lets you select which size image you may be looking for. Admittedly, in the past, I’ve gone in and found an “extra large” image or something really, really generic for a personal project (I used these type of images for this admittedly stereotyped custom invite for a friend a few years back…). Anyway, the extra large images have the highest resolution. I will note that if you are searching for something very specific, you get very slim pickings at this size. You are much more likely to find the image you need at a small or medium size, but it all depends on what you are needing it for. If I end up selecting an extra large image for a project, I then end up modifying the heck out of it. Some people may not agree with this, but I think it’s pretty harmless for images as generic as clouds and grass.

– If you need to reference the web site you got the image from, click on the link next to the “Below is the image at: etc, etc.” as shown below…

– Just because you search for a certain topic doesn’t mean all the images that pop up are going to relate to it. For example, the “swelldesigner” search at the top of this post features projects that are totally unrelated to me. You have to weed through several pages to find the right image.

– Certain key phrases are going to sometimes produce questionable images. For example, a search of images about my friend Jennifer Perkins, the “Naughty Secretary” club as I typed it in Google, resulted in some pretty randy images. Just be prepared for that. People choose some weird ways to tag images on the net so you’ve been forwarned.

Hope you found this little post informative. And on a kinda related note, my actual name is in google search engine lights, meaning it pops up automatically if you try to spell out something past “Alexa We”. Someone out there is actually searching for me or the stuff I create. If only it was my future husband, but I seriously have my doubts on that one. Ha!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa