Visual searching and map sharing made easier
Jinfo Blog

24th August 2010

By Penny Crossland

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This summer, search engines and software developers have been paying a lot of attention to online image display and visual searching. Improved image searching is undoubtedly driven by increased online shopping activity, however visual search engines can also help information professionals in their work. Researchers looking for information on products or individuals will benefit from these and be able to add more strings to their bows when presenting information to their clients. In July, Google revamped its image search facility, creating what critics called a “decidedly Bing-ish” look (http://digbig.com/5bcfmc ) . Nevertheless, the changes made – removing text from pictures to make them stand out more; results all presented on one screen; text details available via hovering over the image - are a vast improvement on what Google was offering before. In what looks like a further move towards stealing a march on Bing, which has been trying to promote its search engine as the one of choice for online shoppers, we now hear that Google has acquired Like.com (http://www.like.com/). A visual search and e-commerce company based in California, Like.com has developed visual search technology to enable online users to look for items using pictures. Google is certainly paying more attention to visual search technology. As Knowledgespeak points out, (http://digbig.com/5bcfmd) , this latest acquisition complements the recent purchase of UK-based Plink, a developer of mobile visual search applications. Late last year, Google also launched Google Goggles, (http://digbig.com/5bcfm) a mobile search facility, which allows android users to upload photos and find information associated with the image. Finding and accessing visual information maps has been made easier with the launch of “Maps for That” (http://www.mapsforthat.com) , a user-generated website for sharing visual information. Developed by Mindjet (http://digbig.com/5bcfmf) , the site provides maps and templates on a variety of topics, such as the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, brainstorming basics and ”how to apply for college”. Users are able to contribute and download maps, as well as share them via social networks. A great idea and another ‘value-added ‘ tool for infopros.

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