For those who have been wondering what Google is up to regarding images, this news may sound like the other shoe dropping: the leading search engine has purchased U.K.-based visual search company Plink.
The brainchild of a two Oxford PhDs, Plink’s first product, PlinkArt, enables users to identify paintings by snapping a picture of them with a mobile phone. Plink says the app has amassed 50,000 users in just four months since the company’s launch.
In an announcement on its blog, the company said: “Google has already shown that it’s serious about investing in [the visual search] space with Google Goggles… We’re still going to be working on visual search. Everything that makes your search experience better, from developing core visual search technology to refining the way results are presented.”
While similar technologies have been on the market for some time—think Idée, LTU and PicScout—Google’s continuous investment in visual search and image-related products is more than noteworthy.
Companies such as ImageSpan and PhotoShelter have demonstrated that image buyers routinely use search engines to source visual content. This development underscores the importance of search engine optimization for content producers.
Pundits also see long-term implications. For instance, Paul Melcher thinks that image recognition technology will eventually put keywording companies out of business—by scanning images, identifying their content and automatically adding relevant keywords to the metadata.