Windows only 
Searching for a specific image on the Internet can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Some sites, such as Google Image search, try to make the process easier, but shuffling through one page after another of results can quickly get tedious.
That's where the free desktop application called Ginipic comes into play. You can view hundreds of results at a time, and inserting an image into an app like PowerPoint is as easy as dragging-and-dropping it. To see how easy it really is checkout their video tour.
Here are some other features that make Ginipic worth it:
- Multiple Sources - You can choose to search your favorite search engine or photo-sharing site (Flickr, Google, Yahoo!, SmugMug, deviantArt, Picasa, Photobucket, Facebook, and more), or expand your search to unlimited results with a click of a button, with our tailored "All Sources" option.
- No Duplicates - Did you know that, on average, "big search engines not be named" give you 200 duplicates for every 1,000 results? Not with ginipic.
- Incredible Variety - Ginipic gives you the power of the web to find ANY picture in ANY category with NO restrictions.
- Advanced Search - Advanced search gives you the ability to customize your queries in each source - just as you would on their site.
- Resizing - Choose your own preview size for the best possible experience! Maximize to enjoy the picture in all its glory, work small if you're just browsing away.
- Tagging - Tag your pictures away and see them all in a heartbeat by choosing your tag in the comfortable Favorites source. Not a tag person? Just favorite the picture and you'll still have a super easy access to it.
- Drag & Drop - Drag & Drop functionality gives you the ability to start working immediately - you see something you like, just drag it in your work space and continue working.
- Save Images Locally - Want to backup or save it for later? No need in clumsy "right click, save as, too hard to understand what's going on" options - just save the picture right from the preview window when you're satisfied.
- Set as Wallpaper - Do you feel like changing your background? Just hit the "Set as wallpaper" on any picture and instantly your desktop will change and renew before your eyes.
This is definitely a slick app, and truly handy for those heavy images searchers out there. Give it a whirl and let us know what you think.
Get Ginipic for Windows [via Lifehacker]
Thanks Sanji for the tip!
I tried Ginipic out because I simply love the Cooliris firefox extension and I thought Ginipic might provide the same funtionality, but outside of a web browser.
If you like Ginipic, you will be astounded with the Cooliris extension for Firefox. Also, Cooliris works with video sites too, not just image site.
I hope someone finds this useful.
thanks Mark for the recommendation!
I love Cooliris for browsing random images, it’s beautiful, but it’s just not usable. When I need pictures for my blog, it takes me forever to download them from Cooliris and see if they fit me, and with Ginipic I just choose the size and drag & drop them to my Live Writer (I think you can drag them to pretty much everything).
Sounds interesting, but usually I research for text rather than images. Google provides pretty relevent images for my minimal needs.
This software seems to be a good solution for somebody who deals heavily with images. Not my case.
Cooliris was mentioned. I stopped using it because their shell integration screws up a lot. It can prevent IE7 from opening and the uninstaller doesn’t remove everything. The Firefox extension is a little better behaved. ginipic looked like a great alternative until I tried it. The first thing it does upon starting is resize and push all the other open windows. Their feedback is not an actual forum, it’s an awkward flash-based voting booth. ginipics promises an enhanced user experience but demands it’s own way. Wrongo. The computer doesn’t belong to ginipic, it belongs to the person. Uninstalled with a vengeance.
Regrettably while cooliris works (bugginess aside) Ginipic mostly doesn’t. I’ll make a prediction – this ain’t going nowhere man! To search an image on my own machine it took me 10mins to find the setting! (OK so I’m dumb, but I’m far more tech/computer minded than about 90% of the pop). Then it actually didn’t find half of what I know is there. As for searching the dreaded internets it was a disaster and refused to find that which Google alone could find. It appeared to be so family safe that much of the time I seemed to get family, school and business photos of people and nothing else. It was slowish and rather clunky and the bandwidth it was pulling was a bit scary.
No.
I have not tried CoolIris yet but will plan on it. As for GiniPic, I do not know what FredThompson and Idodialog were doing but GiniPic loaded and worked perfectly for me. No problems with any search, any re-sizing, any saving/moving……nothing. I use FireFox and IE7. I really do love it. As for the “family safe” part, I found all levels of content across the whole image arena in very very quick time. For me, this rates a good 4 1/2 stars out of five. Now if it would only make coffee…..
That sounds like the sidebar mode to me that is more focused on being used alongside another app. You should be able to go to the normal mode that behaves like typical applications. You can also see this in their screencast.