Yesterday Google released a search-by-image Android app called Google Googles. Take a picture of something and Google will run a search for whatever the heck it thinks it is. Very nifty. It worked like a champ for the following:

• I took a picture of the cover of this book and Google returned results for the query mythical man-month. The hits included Amazon and Wikipedia.

• Next I pulled up this picture of City Hall in Philly from Google Images. I took a picture of the image and — bingo! — Google returned hits for william penn statue. Google gets full credit because the first 2 hits mention that the statue is “atop Philadelphia City Hall”.

• I also took a snap of the snow leopard Apple uses for Mac OS X 10.6. GG searched for os x snow leopard, rather than simply snow leopard. Smart (I think).

• Finally, I used this image of President Obama. GG searched for the obama view, a book by Shelly Bueche. I’ll give Google credit for this as well ’cause it’s close enough for government work.
  

Googles isn’t perfect, however. It gacked on my Pepsi Max label, including the bar code. I would have thought that was a gimmee. Oh, well.

Anyway, now I can search any of 3 ways with my G1: by camera with Goggles, by voice, and using the slide-out or on-screen keyboards. I’m waiting for the day when I can simply press it to my forehead and it’ll search for what I’m thinking about.

Submitted by: Dan Giancaterino, Education Services Manager
on December 08, 2009 - 4:04 pm

Comments (0) | More Gadgets & Tech Tools, Google, Pictures Posts