1. A search engine stored on a non-transitory computer useable storage medium for execution by a computer for searching images located on remotely connected machines and extracting data from said images, said search engine comprising: means for receiving a query from a user; means for using the query to search an index collection of one or more charts for one or more chart types, each of the charts indexed by a set of attributes, and at least one of the attributes comprising a chart type determined through a classifier; the classifier for identifying images comprising image features characteristic of a particular numerically generated image type, the images comprising one or more charts selected from a plurality of known charts consisting of column charts, bar charts, line charts, pie charts, scatter charts, area charts, surface charts, and three-dimensional charts, wherein the classifier determines a chart type for an image from among the plurality of known charts; means for extracting numerical data from the one or more charts based on the chart type determined by the classifier, the numerical data represented graphically in the one or more charts; and means for presenting identified images and extracted numerical data to said user in response to said query.