Google promised last month that it would roll out Lens to Google Images after announcing the object recognition technology in May of last year. The feature is one of the biggest improvements the Mountain View giant has introduced to its search capabilities, letting you learn more about objects within an image on the web with artificial intelligence.
Today, the feature is officially available for everyone doing an image search on the mobile web in English. While its availability is currently limited in the U.S., Google plans to release the image recognition capability to more countries and in more languages in the future.
As Google explained last year, Lens uses its Knowledge Graph to identify items in a given image and show you a selection of similar photos. This is especially helpful if you are looking for a new sofa, for example, as shown in the GIF to the right. With Lens, you can choose one of the images in the search results and the feature will display relevant photos that may contain links to product pages, for example, so that you can purchase the item you want.
The Lens icon can be found next to the share option underneath an image. Once you tap on it, dots will show up on objects you may want to explore further. After tapping on one of the dots or drawing a portion of the photo containing multiple dots, a Lens panel will start showing related images.
Google promises to display the dots on other types of objects in the coming months including landmarks, animals, and plants.
2 Comments - Add comment