SITE REVIEW: Ozzu Web Templates Color Search

Hello! Go here:

http://www.ozzu.com/webtemplates/

On the right hand side you will see a search area. The part that is new is the color search that allows you to sort the results by the color you choose. Please try it out and give me some feedback on any problems you notice, any ideas for improvement, or anything else you would like to say about it.

Please do not comment on any other parts of the template area, I am only interested in feedback on the color search feature.

Thanks!

Brian

I wrote it using PERL and MySQL. Basically in a nutshell I wrote a script that examines each screenshot with each template and determines the average overall color. From there each average color is stored in the MySQL database. Then when a user selects a color it compares that color with each template color stored in the MySQL database. The results that are returned are ordered with the templates that most closely match that color to the least. The actual color chosen does not filter any templates out, it only uses it to order them from the closest match to the least match. That is why you will notice that for any color you choose the number of results returned remain the same, unless you use other search filters above the color area (that reduce the results).



I think by computing the average color, in a way it does this. For example lets say you chose green. If a template is mostly blue but contains an area 20x20 pixels that is green, then that would be figured in on the overall average color of the template. Of course templates that have more green would show up first, the ones with the least amounts of green should show up last.

Now what it won't do, which is what you might be referring to, is actually figure out if the precise color you chose exists in the template and by what percentage. I think that would be much harder to do because there could be potentially thousands of colors that exist in a template. That combined with searching over thousands of templates would create a very high load. For example 12000 templates x 1000 colors each = 12,000,000 records searched each time that button is pressed. Compare that with 12000 templates x 1 average color = 12,000 records searched.

Yes that is probably the averaging system. Keep in mind though, that if there are no templates near the average color you chose, it will simply return the ones closests in color distance to what you picked. But you are correct because if you had a template that was 50% red and 50% blue it would actually average to purple, which means if you chose purple it should be near the top. So while the system isn't perfect, overall it does a fairly good job at returning results that match.