Google Image Labeler: Devious or Genius?

So if you're Google, and gosh oh golly me, you'd like your ginormous image library labelled, what on earth can you do as inducement to get it done free?

 

Aha!  Make it a game, of course.  With nice short two-minute increments, and the inbuilt competitiveness of trying to beat another (unknown) participant in real time.  No need to login, you can play as 'guest'.

 

This is what Google itself says about Google Image Labeler:

 

How does it work?

You'll be randomly paired with a partner who's online and using the feature. Over a two-minute period, you and your partner will:

• View the same set of images.
• Provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see.
• Receive points when your label matches your partner's label. The number of points will depend on how specific your label is.
• See more images until time runs out.

After time expires, you can explore the images you've seen and the websites where those images were found. And we'll show you the points you've earned throughout the session.

What do you need to participate?

Just an interest in helping Google improve the relevance of image search for users like yourself.

 

Devious or genius?  Your call.  A student told me about this, and he thought it was fun.  It's in beta (ie. a trial).

 

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