If you have not heard about Google Goggles yet, you have definitely missed something that is truly a hallmark of emerging search engine technology. The technology has been in the works at Google for a long time and lets users search using pictures. For instance, you could capture a picture with your camera of a local landmark and Google will recognize the picture and immediately return results that are relevant to the picture captured.
The Google Goggles functionality has been available on Android since December last year and though the functionality is still far from perfect, it is still seen as one of the promising new search technologies. It is then of interest to iPhone users that the Google Goggles functionality has finally made it to the App Store. This feature is now available as part of the Google Mobile application and can be accessed by tapping on the small camera button that is available on the new version of the app available for free download from the App Store [iTunes link].
Do note that the Goggles functionality is not comprehensive. Google explains,
“Computer vision is a hard problem and Google Goggles is still a Labs product. It works well for things such as landmarks, logos and the covers of books, DVDs and games. However, it doesn’t yet work for some things you might want to try like animals, plants or food.”
Goggles works only with an auto-focus camera and hence you can check out this new functionality if you own an iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 running iOS 4.x.