In this paper, we present a novel solution to the image annotation problem which annotates images using search and data mining technologies. An accurate keyword is required to initialize this process, and then leveraging a large-scale image database, it 1) searches for semantically and visually similar images, 2) and mines annotations from them. A notable advantage of this approach is that it enables unlimited vocabulary, while it is not possible for all existing approaches. Experimental results on real web images show the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Categories and Subject Descriptors I.4.8 [Image Processing and Computer Vision]: Scene Analysis ? object recognition. H.3.3 [Information Storage and Retrieval]: Information Search and Retrieval ?search process. General Terms: Algorithms, Performance.