The Click Times: Google wants to make it easy to find things that are difficult to describe in just a few words or an image.
On Thursday, Google (GOOG) introduced a new search option that lets you combine text and images in a single query. For example, if you wanted to shop for a shirt similar to one in a photo, you can input that you want the same style and write a description like “With polka dots” or take a picture of your couch and type “chair” to find one that does looks similar.
Google announced Thursday a step to make it easier for you to search for items that are difficult to describe in words or images and adding something new to Google Lens. The company calls the feature “multisearch,” and it allows you to combine text and images to search for more than just what’s in a picture.
It can do a number of things, like tell you where to buy something online, find local restaurants by selecting a menu, or even help you navigate to a business if you see its sign on the street. You can start using multisearch if you have used Google’s Lens tool before. If not, you can go here , use it once, and then try out multisearch for yourself.
Multisearch is a new way to find information by taking what’s in the image you’re looking at and searching Google for it. But it’s not just limited to images—multisearch can work on any webpage, both content and product pages. Here’s how to use it: While looking at an image or web page that has text in it, tap Search (or say “Ok Google”) and then choose Multisearch from the list. For example, if you’re looking at a restaurant on Yelp, you can choose Multisearch from the list and then say, “Ok Google, show me photos of this restaurant.” If a sign has a location name on it, you might be able to say “What pizzerias are around here?”
The feature, which the company calls “multisearch,” and which was previewed in September, is now available for US users on the Google Lens portion of the Google mobile app. Liz Reid, vice president of Google search, told The Click Times business that the feature is initially considered experimental. It is initially intended to be used for shopping-related searches, but is not limited to such queries.
“This will only be the beginning,” Reid said.Google has long offered an image search engine. Multisearch marks Google’s latest effort to make search more flexible and less bound to words on a screen.
There’s also Google Lens, a feature introduced in 2017 that can instantly identify objects in an image or translate text when viewed through a phone’s camera lens. Another attempt in 2020 gave users the option to hum to search for specific songs.
To find multisearch on the Google mobile app, you need to tap a camera icon on the right side of the search bar, which will open Google Lens. You can take or upload a photo, then tap a small bar that has a plus sign and the phrase “Add to your search.” This allows you to type in words to better explain what you want.
The feature works in a variety of ways, essentially through the use of artificial intelligence. Computer vision infers what’s in the picture, while natural language processing determines the meaning of the words you type. Those results are then combined to train an overall system, Reid said.
When Google launched this type of search in September, the company explained that it would use a powerful machine learning tool called MUM (which stands for “multitask unified model”), which it launched last May. Reid said in an interview last week that this won’t be the case at first, but that it may use MUM in the coming months, which she said she thinks will help improve search quality.
When asked if Google will eventually allow people to use search in even more diverse ways, such as combining music and words in a search query to find new types of music, Reid said the company won’t work on that specifically, but it interested in combining various inputs in the future.
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Tags: #google search by image #google search by image on mobile #google search by photo #google search by text #google multisearch feature #google new update today
