Google Goggles: A Cellphone App that Uses Photos as Input to Search the Web

Google goggles is a new Google Labs creation that provides a visual interface to Google. It will soon be available as a cell phone app, allowing users to use the camera's eye as a search input. It will allow people armed with an internet connected cell, to search for information about products, services, people and places without the need for text input.

With this app, people will be able to compare prices via the internet by simply snapping a photo and selecting search. I can think of hundreds of uses for this new technology. Even finding directions from a certain city block to a specific building. Imagine taking a snapshot of yourself, and pulling up all of your social networking profiles, or better yet, snapping a pic of someone in a bar, and checking out their internet profiles before making contact, screening potential bad chemistry before considering a date. You would have access to loads of useful dating info, all by just clicking a couple of times.

I see potential in something like this to aid the digitally impaired, i.e. limbless, or people who have lost the use of their arms. This will make Google more accessible to many folks. The program contains, and implements optical character recognition software, enabling it to read printed text, simply by taking a snapshot of it. Imagine snapping a headline, and returning the latest internet news on the subject. Awesome.

Google Goggles is currently available free of charge, for android phones. The app is currently in the process of development, but is sure to be completed in the near future. If you are tech-savvy, and have an android phone, you can download a beta version, and be a part of the project, by providing feedback to Google. According to Google Labs, you can get it by downloading it directly to your android phone. The Google Labs webpage says, "Go to Android market from your phone and search for Google Goggles." I believe that soon, many more portable devices will be compliant. As this app becomes more widely used, it will evolve, as google has, and get smarter. More, and more images will be logged into the database, and recognition will get better, I am sure.