Not only can image search be popular in Google or Yahoo, TG at Kelikuru.com is conceived that it has a bright future in Business-to-Business (B2B) websites. By adding visual value and returning relevant results, the image search facility can be a killer tool to capture traffic and engagee users.

The idea came after TG’s four-day study with a group of overseas and local users in Hong Kong, observing their behavior in searching for products last week. A large portion of them was using product images as the de facto medium to find their desirable items on B2B websites.

The demand for a full-blown image search in B2B websites appears to be growing stronger than last year as image search becomes more and more popular in major search engines. Google has recently updated its findings in image search and Yahoo also looks closely to optimize its image search preview. These two overarching search giants have engaged themselves in a competition game aiming at providing users a faster way to find information.

There are many reasons why users are reliant on image search. The following tells us a couple of them through the study:

1. Filter out irrelevant items by scanning product images in SERP

2. Overwhelmed by clutterd page layout and text-based product descriptions

3. Image search is a visual dictionary. Users may not be English native speakers or they have not seen customers’ assigned product before. They use product image as a visual clue to understand an unknown or vague item they are searching for

4. Browse product images casually in the hope that they can shop for a new and profit-generated product

5. Check similar products and tailor made their own

Often times, B2B websites enable their users to perform searches by products, suppliers, selling leads, buyers, news or even trade shows. So why not an image search?

Hong Kong Trade Development Council search tabs_kelikuru

Hong Kong Trade Development Council image search facility

TTnet search tabs_Kelikuru

TTnet

Alibaba search tabs_Kelikuru

Alibaba home page

eSources search tabs_Kelikuru

ESources home page

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