How it works

The results of Yahoo searches are transformed by a PHP script into
coordinates, and then used to plot lines and curves. The search result
text is placed near the end of each line. Everything is subjected to
randomness.

The process:

• The user specifies the dimensions of the image, along with the search terms, a colour theme, and the tightness they desire
• Yahoo search - brings back results
• The PHP script assembles the text descriptions for each result, sticks all the sentences together, and then goes through measuring the number of letters in each word - add some random factors, and this gives us the coords. So each set of 4 words is X1, Y1, X2, Y2
• The 'themes' apply different colour schemes, line widths and positions to the lines and arcs
• The 'tightness' means how closely squashed up are the lines and arcs. This is defined by an algorithm applied to the values of the coordinates.
• The Yahoo search result words are then taken and sprinkled on top at random sizes, and placed in random positions
• The PHP GD library creates the illustration as a PNG file, to the dimensions the user has specified.