Flickr Images: Using a Search Lab to Find Photos by Color

Flickr photos are a great way to add something more appealing and entertaining to your website or blog. In an earlier article I talked about how you can use the creative commons license to achieve this with Flickr photos.

It is also possible to search Flickr photos that fall under the category of only having a creative commons license. If you use the built in search feature in Flickr you will often find resulting that say "all rights reserved." These are images and photos that you cannot use for your own personal use.

Flickr provides a URL that allows you to search the newest photos with a creative commons license http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/. You should note that this search uses the old version 2.0 of the creative commons license; however, it is very similar to the new version 3.0 of the license.

However, my favorite way to find photos on Flickr is by using the Multicolr Search Lab by Idée Inc. This mashup is really something quite breathtaking. It says that it is using the top 10 million images on Flickr.

What the search lab allows you to do is to search Flickr photos by color. There is a color sidebar on the right of the website. You are allowed to click up to ten colors. If you click something you do not want to use anymore you can click the trash can next to the color to delete and remove it.

The Multicolr Search Lab will very quickly show you results of Flickr images of the color you clicked. It is really quite breathtaking and perfect for anyone looking to find photos that accent and highlight certain colors. When you add another color or more you can really begin to see the results. This is a great way to find photos and images of the colors you are thinking of without having to spend a lot of time on Flickr digging through different images.

My personal favorite use of the Multicolr Search Lab is to show some school spirit or team spirit. Most sporting teams have one, two, or three team colors. You can easily click these colors on the sidebar and return interesting and brilliant looking Flickr images. You can then use these images on your website or blog because all of the results returned are license under the creative commons license. This is a great way to show your pride for your team before the big game. There are many other uses and ways to use the Search Lab and I am sure you can find something useful.