The other day Google launched the "Google Image Labeler," a site that invites you to come look at pictures and type in descriptive words. Users are paired up and their responses compared. The more matches, the better your "score" and the better the image tags for Google's image search.
Why would you want to do this for free? Apparently it's a game that derives from something called the "ESP Game," according to TechDirt, so for starters there's the amusement factor. I can't imagine that will last long, though. There's also the joy of seeing your name on the high score page at Google. Most of all, I imagine this appeals to the utopian "cult of information" that also drives Wikipedia and other online projects, including Google, whose followers believe that simply dumping and categorizing all the world's information onto networks will empower and enrich people. Google is still a hero for most of these enthusiasts, so it's not a concern that they're effectively being used as free labor. Imagine if Microsoft tried this.
Interestingly, it looks like people are gaming the system, judging by "today's top pairs" (see image). I'm not sure if that user is suggesting an effective cheat or is saying that most images on the web are in fact "tits" -- both seem plausible.
Via Boing Boing: Google uses game to get good image metadata with Image Labeler.
Previously in cheap online labor news: Human-Powered Artificial Intelligence (Amazon Turk).
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