Smarterware » search

Google: “Faces are objects that can be recognized”

Gina Trapani — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:00:04 +0000

Now that you can point your cameraphone at an object and get Google search results back about that image, what about photographing a stranger and getting Google results back for his or her name? With facial recognition in Picasa and Picasa Web Albums, that doesn't seem far-fetched. Today Google confirmed that the search engine could recognize faces based on photos, but they decided not to enable that functionality until they "work through issues of user privacy." (These quotes may not be exact; pulled from Danny Sullivan's liveblog of Google’s Web Search “Evolution” Event today.)

Google Goggles Searches by Camphone Photo

Gina Trapani — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:49:09 +0000

Today Google releases a new search-by-picture Android application called Google Goggles. You point your cameraphone at a product, landmark, logo, book or DVD, business card, or storefront, take a photo, and Goggles returns search results related to that photo. While I love the idea of the app, in practice Goggles is pretty slow to analyze a photo and return results, at least on my G1--and the results are hit-or-miss. I snapped photos of an Xbox 360 controller, a copy of Moby Dick, a bottle of Mucinex and a box of Sudafed (hey, I'm sick today). Goggles turned up information about Moby Dick and Sudafed instantly, but choked on the Xbox controller and the Mucinex. Download Goggles for free by searching for it in the Android Market, or check out the explainer video about Goggles here.

Three Google Wave Searches Worth Saving

Gina Trapani — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:25:18 +0000

After only a few weeks of Wave usage, my inbox is been teeming with activity, full of waves from strangers who have added me and 17 other strangers to items I don't particularly care about. Rather than shoot for inbox zero in Wave and spend the time archiving everything in sight, I'm going with the flow--with the help of a few saved searches. Besides the previously-mentioned with:public search, three other saved searches are making drilling down to my most important waves much easier.

onlyto:me is:unread: This search shows waves that are directed only to me (no one else) and are unread. It provides a much more streamlined view of incoming waves that I'm more likely to want/need to respond to because they're only to me.
creator:me -is:note: These are waves I have created and added other people to, which most likely means they're waves I'm waiting for responses on. This view is very similar to an email sent box.
is:note: I've taken to using Wave as a personal notebook, and jotting waves that no one else is a participant on. This is probably an outside use case of Wave--its purpose is collaboration--but this handy is:note operator does easily return "notes to self" waves.

To save a search, enter the query, and then press the "Save search" button on the bottom righthand side of the results panel. As you can see in the screenshot, I also like adding a little color to my saved searches. To do the same, click the drop-down button next to a saved search and choose "Set color." What Wave searches have you saved?

Flickr Image Search Finds Better Photos

Gina Trapani — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 19:34:51 +0000

My favorite way to find photos (especially for publication in blog posts and use in presentations) saw a big upgrade today: Flickr's search results page is now a whole lot easier to browse.

When you search for photos by keyword on Flickr, you get a grid of thumbnails, each of which pops up full-sized versions in-page. (No more having to click to a new page to see what the image looks like close up and other stats.) You can set how big the thumbnails should be, and also sort results by Flickr's magical (and very useful) "Interestingness" rank.

To find Creative Commons-licensed photos only you still have to click on the "Advanced Search" link; but you can bypass that step with a little URL hacking. Append &l=cc to your search keyword shortcut to limit Flickr results to re-publishable images. Firefox keyword bookmark users: the full Flickr CC image search bookmark URL should be http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=%s&l=cc. (Use &l=commderiv for images licensed for commercial use and derivative works.)

When I need to find quality photos that are licensed for reuse in my own work, I hit up EveryStockPhoto (which includes Flickr photos) and Flickr itself--and almost always find what I need without even touching Google Images.

New Flickr Search [Flickr Blog]

Google Profiles Now the Best Way to Get In Search Results for Your Name

Gina Trapani — Mon, 04 May 2009 20:52:01 +0000

People who don't live their lives online like I do often ask me: How can I make it easy for people to find me on the web? While before I might have suggested Facebook, LinkedIn, or just a straight-up personal nameplate site, now I'd advise 'em to set up their Google Profile.

Unless you have a well-linked web site you maintain with your full name all over it, Google search results for your name can vary in quality, and include lots of stuff that's out of date. So it makes sense that Google's trying to make people search results better by including Google Profiles in them. Your Google Profile is a pre-fab nameplate with your identifying vitals: name, location, title, company, and interests. Here's what mine looks like right now.

(GOOG even included support for their competitor's photo-sharing product, Flickr, for the photo strip; I also dig the Google map of places I've lived--so that people can say "oh yes, this is Gina Trapani who used to live in Brooklyn.")

If you fill out enough information in your Google Profile, it will show up at the bottom of the GOOG's web search results for your name. (For me, "enough information" meant entering "where I live now" and "what I do.") This comes in especially handy for people with common names, like my former co-worker at Gizmodo, Jason Chen. See the list of Jason Chen's who have GProfiles returned in the screenshot at the top of this post.

Problem is, who is going to know to fill out their Google Profile?

In a clever marketing move to ramp up Google Profile adoption, last week GOOG offered 25 free business cards to the first 10,000 folks who filled out enough information in their Google Profile and ordered the dead-tree cards. I did just that on Friday, and now my Google Profile appears at the bottom of search results for my name.

As a web-based freelancer who's web findability is super-important, it only made sense to hand over my personal info for publication in my profile. But will it for any other Gina Trapani? As more and more people get online, claiming your name will only get more important and competitive. If Google can collect enough complete profiles, I wouldn't be surprised to see them appear at the top instead of the bottom of results for proper names at some point. But Google's going to have to offer more than a few free paper business cards which essentially say "Google me" on them to get folks to opt in.

Update: Here's what the paper card looks like.