Google Goggles is new search tool (From Salisbury Journal)

Google Goggles is new search tool

12:27am Tuesday 8th December 2009

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People will be able to search for more information about a famous landmark, work of art or logo by using a photograph instead of words, Google said.

Google Goggles is a new visual search tool for mobile phones which use Android operating systems that allow people to search with a picture instead of words.

Users will be able to focus their phone's camera on an object and Google will try to match portions of the picture with the tens of millions of images in its database, a spokesman for the search company said.

For places, users will simply be able to hold their phone in front of the place they are interested in and the Goggles application will use the phone's GPS and compass to determine what that place is and display its name on the camera viewfinder.

Shailesh Nalawadi, Goggles' product manager, said: "Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words.

"For many search queries, using an image to search is easier and more useful than text alone, especially on a mobile phone. Computer vision technology is still in its infancy, but Goggles demonstrates its potential.

"We are hard at work extending our recognition capabilities. You can imagine a future where visual searching is as natural as pointing your finger."

Google Goggles is available as a free download from Android Marketplace.

The search firm also announced that real-time news from the popular micro-blogging website Twitter would start appearing in its English-language search results on Google.com.

A Google spokesman said: "Now, immediately after conducting a search, you'll be able to see live updates from people on popular sites like Twitter and Friendfeed, as well as headlines from news and blog posts that have been published seconds ago. All of these updates are ranked to show the freshest, most relevant results related to what you're looking for."

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