Google Goggles

Mobile searching has just become way, way cooler. Google unveiled its new Google Goggles visual search tool for Android this week, bringing a high-tech twist to accessing information on the go.

Google Goggles: An Introduction

Google Goggles - not to be confused with Google Mail Goggles, the company's inebriated emailing preventer - lets you search from your mobile phone simply by snapping a photo.

Want more info on a product? Take its picture.

Need info about a business? Photograph the storefront.

Put simply, this thing packs some serious power, and its capabilities stretch far.

Google Goggles currently supports photo-based searching for (take a deep breath): books, DVDs, landmarks, logos, contact info, artwork, businesses, products, barcodes, and plain text.

Here's how it works. When you capture an image, Google breaks it down into object-based signatures. It then compares those signatures against every item it can find in its image database. Within seconds, it returns the results to you, ordered by rank. Some results are returned before you even snap a photo, too, thanks to seamless integration of GPS and compass functionality.

But enough on the nuts and bolts. Let's put search-by-sight to the test.

Hands-On With Google Goggles

We started out with something easy: a book. After opening the app, we followed the instructions and took a photo. Google Goggles started analyzing the image. Sure enough, seconds later, we had the results.

Just from seeing the book's cover, Google Goggles gave us the full name and links to compare prices or even preview the text. Below that, it returned regular search results for the title. Not too shabby.

The app worked equally well with a DVD: we photographed the cover of Swingers and received information about the movie, followed by pages of relevant web results.

Google Goggles: The 'Chip-Off-the-Old-Block' Test

How about something a bit more involved? We grabbed a nearby bag of crisps to see if Google Goggles could grab the logo. Once again, no problems. The app saw that the chips were made by Lays and gave us a screen of info about the company.

Even an obscure product such as a tub of protein powder seems to work without so much as a hiccup. Google Goggles matched the actual photo to an online image from a retailer's website, then gave us ample info about the stuff.

Google Goggles: art

We had a book of Magritte paintings in the office. We flipped open to a random page and took a photo. Google Goggles got it.

The Google gang says the app can detect and detail wine, so we figured it was worth a shot. This one took a couple of tries - the first bottle we attempted didn't work - but Google Goggles was able to pull up details about the second label we shot.

Text does the trick, too, whether you're looking at a business card or just words on a page. We tried capturing your author's name off of a recent invoice. Goggles brought up a list of web search results for me, along with contact info and the option to add myself into my phone's directory.

Google Goggles: landmarks and Places

Major landmarks are well within Goggles' sights. We didn't have one nearby, so we photographed a photo of the Eiffel Tower, and sat back to see what'd happen. Google Goggles figured it out and linked us to the landmark information.

Google Goggles uses data from the phone's GPS and compass to deliver live augmented-reality results as well. You just point your phone at any location - a business, for example - and the app places a button with the business name at the bottom of your screen. Tap the button, and Goggles loads info about the business from a web search. No snapshot is needed.

Even just pointing the phone in a general direction will cause AR results to display. Looking out of our office window through the phone, we saw a button that said "20" at the bottom of the screen. When we tapped it, a list of nearby businesses popped up, each with a clickable link containing contact details, reviews, and other information.