Flickr-ize Image Search Plugin

I had been working in last little while on a plugin. The plugin is almost done though it is missing a few minor features I would want to have, so I guess it is time to release the beta and let see how you guys rate this.

So before I release the plugin beta tomorrow let me tell you why you need this plugin.

If you are running a blog that has multiple authors, many times it happens that bloggers do know what contents they have written in past, but they may not remember each and every article written by other bloggers. The same goes true about the images others have uploaded. Now this is not just true for multi author blogs, it happens with single author blogs as well if you have been writing for a while you may not recall that your image database has 400 images stored. Only with multi author blog, it happens a lot.

The problem is actually because of two important features WordPress has not provided.

Missing Image Search

I tried, but I could not find the any image search within the WordPress admin. So there is no way for an author to actually find what images are there. The search feature generally available from sidebars of different blogs is restricted for posts and not for attached and uploaded images. So it is very difficult for anyone to guess what images they uploaded three months back.

Image Browser Page Size

Ops. Actually WordPress does allow you to browse through uploaded images using the “Browse All” tab next to “Upload Images” tab. But this tab is highly inefficient. I have already mentioned that you cant’ search images based on keywords. But on top of that the number of images shown on a page are set to 10. This value of number of images cant be changed from anywhere as no option is given for that in the Options.

These two important shortcomings makes the management of images very messy. As the time progresses, the image database of your wordpress blog becomes a blackhole of procrastination.

Fortunately, with my plugin its not that bad. Flickerize Image Search does the following.

Local Image Search

It adds a tab named “Image Search” next to “Browse-All” in your blog. It allows you search your own wordpress image database. It searches in both description and in the title of the attached image. Guess what. When I first used this tool on a multi author blog and searched for a common name, I found 12 copies of same image uploaded by different authors at different times. You can now begin to understand why you need this tool if you are running any serious, stable blog.

Flickr-ize Image Search

I hear you saying “I dont have a multi author blog and my blog is not that old to have so many images in the database”. Here is why I have “Flickr-ize” in this plugin. The “Flick-rize” tab allows you to search images from Flickr. Not all the images on Flickr are available for public consumption, but you will be amazed to see that so many are there. The most important feature of this plugin here is that it allows you to search the most interesting photos.

So wait until tomorrow [Aug 18]when I release the beta. help me testing this one out to give all of you that worth something.

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