Images on Google

[ideasguy]

I'm disappointed!
Before Google intoduced the "images" search you just had to click blindly through the results list.

For some time now you can enter a plant name, search on "Images" and for any particular plant, you get any colour under the rainbow - very often (supposedly) for the same cultivar.

Now I can excuse difference in shades.
Before I found better settings, Ive taken a photo of a mauve/pink Erigeron with my digital camera only to find it BLUE on my computer.

But, when you know a cultivar should be Pink, and you find the Image results showing WHITE plants, theres something wrong!

[The Gardener]

Yes George, but Google often returns images if the plant in question is mentioned on the same page, but not necessarily pictured.  Also, not everyone is an expert like us here on this forum  so people don't always get it right.  AND - we should all remember that just because something is posted on the internet on a website - it doesn't necessarily follow that the person knows what they are talking about    The floristry trade is notorius for calling flowers by strange names!  For instance, Eryngiums are known as thistles, Equisetum is called bamboo or snake grass (neither a bamboo nor a grass!), and Lucky Bamboo is actually Dracaena.  As a gardener, I find that intensely annoying.  Which brings me to my pet hate, which is common names for plants - but that's another post entirely!!

[ideasguy]

... but Google often returns images if the plant in question is mentioned on the same page, but not necessarily pictured

I dont use images a lot, but now you've mentioned that, I'll bear it in mind next time. Maybe I was being too harsh. Mind you,  I would have expected Google to pick up the the file name, or the Alt name, and use that to return a set of results.

AND - we should all remember that just because something is posted on the internet on a website - it doesn't necessarily follow that the person knows what they are talking about

Actually, In general (excluding plants), I think its surprising that the vast majority of sites are fantastically good,. Its wise not to take it all as gospel, of course.

Which brings me to my pet hate, which is common names for plants - but that's another post entirely!!

Sounds like a very good topic. I'll set it up.