The revamp of Google Image Search, the most extensive redesign since the service was launched in 2001, includes new features like an "infinite scroll," which gives users up to 1,000 images per search page, a "hover pane" that pulls up a larger image and data 
about the image when users place their cursor over it, and a better landing page that can more easily take users to the Web page where the image is stored.
Google also launched Image Search Ads, a service that allows advertisers to buy space to display images of their related products along with the results of users' image searches.
"We really think this new interface is the best in the world," said Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president for search products and experience.
"We give you better information about the image on the result page so you can make a better decision about what image you are interested in," said Ben Ling, director of search products for Google.
The revamped image search, which now indexes more than 10 billion images, launched Tuesday morning and was available to about half of Google users later that day, and expected to be available to everyone else by the end of the week. It will run only on newer Web browsers such as Google's Chrome, Mozilla's Firefox version 3.0 and later, Apple's Safari and Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 and 8.
Google says image search has become a source of entertainment for people, who scroll through pictures of national parks, exotic beaches or celebrities, or browse paintings, photos or drawings. But another main use is to seek out travel destinations and products, such as photos of European capitals or shoe fashions, and Google hopes to use that behavior as a revenue opportunity by offering the new ad format. A search Tuesday for "Edward Hopper Cape Cod," for example, also turned up ads offering people the chance to see and then buy posters of the artist's paintings.
Because those ads feature actual images of a product, Google believes they will generate more advertising revenue than a text ad bundled with a standard search, although executives declined to say how much. "We expect users to get higher value from those ads because they will be seen in the relevant context, so we expect there will be a premium over text ads," Ling said. Last week in San Francisco, Microsoft executives said Bing's image searches, which already included an infinite scroll feature, were growing at an even faster rate than its general Web search.
Google executives hinted that some of the features included in image search, such as a continuous scroll, could soon find their way to Google's main search function. Now, users must click a link to get succeeding pages of results.
While there are some technical difficulties in bringing that feature to text searches, "I think it has some potential for that," Mayer said.
