Google More About The Internet

Google announced Thursday that it's bringing out Google Lens, the Android feature that identifies objects in pictures, to its Google Image Search on the mobile web.

This means that you'll be able to select parts of your image. If you're looking at photos on Google and other people's boots, you'll be able to find pictures of similar boots. For certain categories of products, you will be able to buy products online.

"Cathy Edwards said, head of Google Images, in a conversation with Quartz. "A lot of times you do not have the words to articulate what you're actually looking for."

Google maps and displays images for its users. Rather than just looking for keywords attached to an image, a Google lens creates a new way that images are judged against each other. It's another layer in between the creators of images and Google users. And now that you know how to do it, it's more than just to personalize and manipulate which images you see on the internet.

For most cases, this is an invaluable tool. It will be easier to make an initial Google search and then quickly narrow it down to what you really want, even if you can not articulate it.

But Lens also consolidates the search company's ability to arbitrate the world's information. Google is interested in bringing more information into the content of the image. It's another way of providing information around images, which Google has struggled to keep free of misinformation in the past. Last year Google has been criticized for its inability to keep fake news and conspiracy videos off of YouTube, as well as it's main search function.

"We understand our responsibility in society," Edwards said. "And we definitely think about the authoritative nature of the authoritative way of making sure we're connecting to high-quality, authoritative information."

But they are not shown, but they are not shown. In the past Google has turned off some of the elements of its visual AI tools in the political and ethical cover, silently changing the way it surfaces information to its shortcomings in its code. After a 2015 gaffe where it categorized black people as gorillas, Google turned off the ability for Google Photos to categorize gorillas. (A Quartz test confirmed it has not been turned on for Google Photos since the Wired article in January 2018.) available around images.

Google is rolling out Lens for Google image search today, but is only available in the United States in English for now.