Need Help - Image does not show up on search result page

[steve02usa]

Hello - I am new to using Zoom Search v5. I was using Zoom Search v3.10 and have upgraded to this newest version. I am trying to get my images to show up in the search result page with no success. I need some assistance if possible. I have gone thru the configuration setup to specify my .jpg files, have loaded the .jpg plugin and have also turned on .jpg to show up in the results page. I also have created a thumbnail directory on my website that contains thumbnails of all my .jpg images. They have the same name as the original .jpg with a prefix of tn_

My question.... in order for this process to work, do I have to modify every one of my HTML pages and add the ZOOMIMAGE meta tag for each of my .jpg images? I think this is what is preventing my images from showing up in my results page. I have over 2000 pages and well over 2500 images on my website. To update each of these pages, (that have multiple images on each page) to add the ZOOMIMAGE meta tag is going to be almost impossible. The time to do this process is going to be very large!!! Is there any other method I can use to get my .jpg images to show up in my results page, without having to use the ZOOMIMAGE meta tag? Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking time to read my post.

[David]

Are you trying to,
1) Index image files and then search for them
OR
2) Have thumbnails in your search results (for both image files and other file types, like HTML pages?).
Or maybe you are wanting to do both?

These two FAQs cover both these options.
Q. How do I associate images with my search results?
Q. How do I index image files (eg. JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF)?

Do you images contain EXIF or IIM meta information?

No you do not need to modify all your HTML pages to index image files.

If you continue to have a problem can you post the URL for your site, along with the URL to your thumbs and the URL of some images you are trying to index.

[steve02usa]

Good Day - First off, thank you for responding so quickly. I really appreciate your fast response, and your product!!!!!

To answer your questions as best as I can -

I am only trying to have my thumbnail pics show up in my search result page along with the result information. This is the same as shown in your examples. Nothing fancy, just showing the thumbnail pics along with each search result.

I have read both of your articles and have followed their information to the tee, as best as I can. I have defined all the information so that it should be picked up in the search.

OK... here comes the bad part, which might be my problem. My pics do not have EXIF or IIM data defined. I looked at the properties of each pic, and there is no information contained within the pics. If I understand the examples correctly, this may in fact be the problem as to why the pics do not show up in the result page. I guess that without the EXIF or IIM data being defined within each pic, then there is really no way they can be indexed to show up on the result page. Is this correct?

Lastly the thumbnails are not referenced on any of my HTML pages. I have created the thumbnails as a source for the search engine to use in placing the pics next to the search result. Whenever I add a pic to my website, then I turn around and add a thumbnail pic to my thumbnail directory.

Here is the URL to my website that I am trying to index with zoom search. If you will notice, I do have on the right hand side, my search setup using the old version of Zoom Search v3.10 That is why I have upgraded to Zoom Search v5. I wanted to take advantage of the pic inclusion, along with all the other new features that you have in your product!!!!!!!!

Please take a look and let me know if you have any other suggestions. Again I really appreciate your assistance. I'm also glad to know I don't have to update all 2000 HTML pages with the META Tage inclusion. On the other side, now I have to update all 4000 pictures (2000 originals, and the 2000 thumbnail pics) to include the correct information in the properties file.

Here is my URL http://www.vintagevogue.com/onlinestore/catalog.htm

I await your reply.

[David]

I checked a few images on your site and agree, they don't seem to contain any EXIF or IIM meta data. Nor are the file names descriptive. For example the file name,
cat264981.jpg
is for a product called,
"LE6 Velvet Leaves - Forest Green 27-030"

If you had used descriptive files names, like,
Velvet-Leaves-Forest-Green.jpg,
then this might have also helped searching.

So there really isn't any way meaningful way you can search for the image files themselves. (Zoom can't examine an image and determine that the image is a 'Oak Tree in winter', only humans have this level of intelligence at the moment).

Assuming you don't want to tag and rename all your image files, I would instead suggest that turn you attention to indexing your HTML pages and doing thumbs for your HTML pages instead.

To do this you need could use the ZOOMIMAGE meta tag. But this would invovle editing all HTML files. Instad create a thumb image per HTML file and name them consistently.

If you html file is called,
/item3722.htm
then make a thumb called
/th_item3722.jpg

Then you can configure Zoom to automatically pick up thumbs for .htm files (from the scan options tab, click on .htm / configure).