Stumbled on an very interesting development at google – google goggles. It allows you to search the internet by taking pictures on your mobile phone. I found this on my iphone, after installing the mobile app as safari was so sluggish. The mobile app is a free download, and its search is really quick on iphone but the built in camera aka “google goggles” had me taking pictures of everything in the office to see if it would recognise what it was.
Take pictures
It had no trouble with the underscore business card, got it right away. Starbucks coffee cup – it got that too. Nurofen logo – no problem – it even told me the cheapest place to buy them online. Got me thinking, what can’t it recognise?
At the moment it can recognise text, landmarks, books, contact information, artwork, logos and even wine bottles. I’ve not tested it enough yet, but its such a great idea given the amount of mobile phones with half decent built in cameras. The core idea is such a good concept – like that building in the city, not the gherkin, the other Dallas inspired one, what’s that called? Take a picture, wait a few seconds – ah its tower 42 and its the second tallest skyscraper in the city of london, and the 6th tallest in London as a whole – wow!
Looking at the buzz online it seems to work really well for landmarks, logos, books, cd covers and games – but works less well for everyday objects which in all honesty is not surprising. I can see it getting better and better as people try and get their object to be recognised. It almost makes a whole new genre of seo via images. I know images have always played a big role in helping natural search results but this turns that on its head.
What next
So the question I have now is, how the heck do I get my image indexed so that it appears in goggles? Or rather what is the quickest way of getting an image into the goggles world?
So for instance, goggles does not recognise what the entrance to underscore towers, it just thinks its a door. Its not just a door, its the underscore door. Where would I upload the image so that goggles would notice it, and say “ah that’s the underscore office”.
If you want to test drive the goggles app, then you can find more information at Google goggles