Search engine supporting mixed image and text input

An online search system that services both a plurality of web servers and a plurality of users via an Internet, the plurality of web servers offering a plurality of web page data, the plurality of web page data including a plurality of links to a plurality of images, the online search system comprising:

• a crawl processing service that gathers the plurality of images and, for each of the plurality of images, related text;
• an image processing service that analyzes of each of the plurality of images to produce analysis data;
• a storage that contains the analysis data and text data for each of the plurality of images, the text data being based at least in part on portions of the related text;
• a search system that identifies first images from first search input and second images from second search input, the first images and second images corresponding to selections from the plurality of images, the first search input comprising a first search image and the second search input comprising first search text;
• and
• the search system at least assisting in a delivery of at least portions of both the first images and the second images to support at least one visual presentation for a first user of the plurality of users.

A computer program for instructing a user's computer of a user to perform a method supporting Internet based interaction with an online search system, the online search system gathering a plurality of web page related data including a plurality of related images from a plurality of web hosting servers, the method comprising:

• directing the user's computer to produce a first visual presentation for the user to support gathering of a first search image from the user;
• directing the user's computer to deliver the first search image to the online search system to the online search system support a first search to identify first images from the plurality of related images;
• directing the user's computer to produce a second visual presentation for the user based on the first images;
• and
• directing the user's computer to gather and deliver first search text relating to the first search image to the online search system to support a second search to identify second images from the plurality of related images, the first search text originating from the user.