Time's LIFE Magazine photo archive — 97% of which has never been seen by the public — is now available on Google Image Search.

TimeWarner agreed to let Google digitize the images, which have been stored in the form of negatives, slides, glass plates, etchings, and prints. Some photos date back to the 1750s, Google said.

Images are labeled by subject, organized by decade and category, and can be searched by photographer and date.

So far, 20% of the entire collection is online. Google will add the entire archive — a total of 10 million images — over the next few months. Many were taken by famous LIFE photographers like Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gjon Mili, and Nina Leen.

Time maintains the rights to the collection and stands to make some a profit off the deal. It expects at least a few meandering image searchers to buy framed prints through a prominent "Purchase Image Merchandise" link above the details of each picture:

A press release states all images in the archive are free "for personal and research purposes." 

An "ordinary person," however, probably won't realize this, as they might only see the Time copyright symbol that suggests they cannot be used for any purpose without explicit permission, writes SearchEngineLand.

And the FAQ page doesn't clarify much; it only suggests users cannot do anything with the images besides browse and view, rate photos, and buy related merchandise. It remains unclear whether Time licenses use for digital versions of the images; at present, there are no such options.

In September, Time announced a partnership with Getty Images to launch LIFE.com in 2009. It had stated Getty's search technology would power the back-end, but recognized the need to improve the overall search functionality of the site to make it intuitive and easy to use.