See it, search it
New technology allows computer users to search for items by appearance rather than words. Amy Scott reports the innovation has piqued the interest of online retailers.
TEXT OF STORY
SCOTT JAGOW: You ever try to search something on the Web, but you just didn’t have the right words to describe it? Well, there’s a new website that let’s your eyes do the searching. Amy Scott has more.
AMY SCOTT: Like.com bills itself as the first truly visual search engine. Say you like a necklace Beyoncé wore on Good Morning America. Just click on a photograph to find others like it and places you can buy them.
Rather than searching for text, like-dot-com scours the Web for images similar in shape, color and texture.
Danny Sullivan edits Search Engine Watch. He says the service probably opens all kinds of possibilities for how people search.
DANNY SULLIVAN: It’s not difficult in the case of celebrities a lot of times to know what it is they’re wearing. Much harder that, I saw an interesting item or I’ve got this song that’s in my head and I don’t know who wrote it.
Like.com’s got some competition.
The search engine Blinx uses voice and image-recognition technology to help users find videos. And a company that specializes in face-recognition was recently bought by none other than Google.
I’m Amy Scott for Marketplace.