I was looking around in the Google Webmaster Tools the other day and came across Enhanced Image Search in the Diagnotic tab. With all the focus on Universal Search and the new emphasis on optimizing images for search results, I was intrigued to figure out what this was all about. Let me start by saying that I think this tool has its place, but it’s not for everyone.

From the Webmaster Tools interface, you have the option to check a box, press OK and enable enhanced image search. Below is a screenshot of where you can find the Enhanced Image Search option.

By doing this Google will use tools (Google Image Labeler) to associate the images within your site with labels that will improve indexing and search quality of those images. Very important point here – you’re assuming the LABELS created will be quality and therefore improve the search quality. One quick spin through the Google Image Labeler left me doubting that in some instances.

From the Image Labeler intro screen, here is how it works:

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 be shown the same set of images and asked to provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see. When your label matches your partner’s label, you’ll earn points depending on how specific your label is. You’ll be shown 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.

Okay, hats off to Google for creating a game that people can play that help Google index images better. If you’re given a perfectly understandable and obvious image, you and whoever you’re paired up with could vastly improve the indexing of that image with quality labels. But what happens if you and your partner can’t figure out the image and you both guess incorrectly and give the image the wrong label? Below is an example. Is that a choir? A wedding party? People in church? I have no idea an either did my partner.

The company I work for manufactures data networking hardware and we have products that many people would have no clue how to label – simply because they don’t deal with that sort of hardware. I wouldn’t trust our products to be labeled correctly.

But, if I had a retail site with an obvious, understandable set of product images I think this would be a very useful tool. Especially if it could help my images land on the search engine results page (SERP). With Universal Search, this will become an ever increasing possibility.

After a long airport/airplane day, I’m back from San Jose and the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference. I will still be recapping important issues and trends discussed at the event over the next week or so. In the meantime, if you’re wanting more news quickly, please visit the Search Engine Strategies Blog and you can get links to many session recaps. Lisa Barone from Bruce Clay, David Dalka, Lee Odden and his team from The Online Marketing Blog, and the team from Search Engine Roundtable were among the sites that live blogged the event.

Overall, I was very happy with the conference. I thought this year’s sessions were less about just paid search (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) and more about the complete strategy of marketing your business on search engines. There was also a major infusion of social media tracks and how companies and agencies can take advantage of the trend.

As a person on the client side BtoB space, I was also encouraged to see that more of the speakers talked about how search engine marketing is a significantly growing factor for us. I can see BtoB being a much bigger focus of this conferences in two years.

Overall, well worth my time! I would encourage you to take a look at future SES conferences.

As a heads up to my readers, I’m heading to the Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference in San Jose next week. I’m very excited for the event and hope to be able to pass on alot of new search engine marketing information to you! I attended the event last year and found it to be a great source of current PPC, SEO, and other related SEM and online marketing information.

(oh yeah, the Google Dance isn’t bad either!)

I’m not going to be live blogging from the event, but will be passing on what I’ve learned from each session. Stay Tuned!

Anyone else heading to SES San Jose? Any topics related to the event you’d like me to cover on the Lonely Marketer?

I’ve been in a “pass along news” phase this week rather than the “practical tips” information I usually post. Interesting news and a crazy schedule are a couple causes for that. At any rate, here are two updates from the Google Adwords Blog that might interest you:

Improved location targeting for the Ad Preview Tool

Maybe my friends over at Red Fly Marketing, with their ad preview Firefox extension utility, prompted Google to speed up the release of their improved tool. I’m impressed with the update (screen shot below). Drop-downs for Keyword, Google Domain, Display Language, Country, and State are huge improvements over the structure they had before. I tested it today and it works pretty good. It was easy enough to use that I also tested our organic results in different countries as well. Wow, in one week this task became so much easier. I encourage you to check out both the Red Fly Marketing Firefox extension and Google’s tool!

What’s new in the world of invalid clicks

The Google Click Quality team continues to show their on top of potential click fraud and even working on ways to better communicate their efforts to us users. Check out the post for updates and ways you can help reduce click fraud. I’m an active user of more than a few of their methods for getting rid of bad clicks.