I disagree with the author, and think that he hasn't used google image search very extensively.
"Instead of the single page of thumbnails, you get over 20 pages of large thumbnails all on the same huge page."
The (near) endless scrolling model works better for rapidly sorting large sets of images, not worse.
"There is no information, just endless thumbnails. No sizes, no locations to scan, nothing! ... Now you have to place the pointer on top of each image for ... size and location information."
If you are optimizing for a an interface for sorting the most images possible, removing text makes sense to me. Also, sorting options for the image size is now on the left, which I find more useful than reading text below each image.
The pop-ups also contain controls which the author ignores that are very handy: similar images, and different sizes of the same image.
"Instead of the single page of thumbnails, you get over 20 pages of large thumbnails all on the same huge page."
The (near) endless scrolling model works better for rapidly sorting large sets of images, not worse.
"There is no information, just endless thumbnails. No sizes, no locations to scan, nothing! ... Now you have to place the pointer on top of each image for ... size and location information."
If you are optimizing for a an interface for sorting the most images possible, removing text makes sense to me. Also, sorting options for the image size is now on the left, which I find more useful than reading text below each image.
The pop-ups also contain controls which the author ignores that are very handy: similar images, and different sizes of the same image.