By Cristian Bustos. Originally published at ValueWalk.
Google – Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) – will allow users to search for things they cannot easily describe. The company’s powerful search engine has launched a search option through which users can combine text and images when entering a query, to facilitate results.
Multisearch
As reported by The Verge, the image functionality literally shows Google what users are precisely looking for, and lets them add a few keywords for further details. This is especially useful when people cannot describe what they are searching for.
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Google Search product manager Belinda Zeng told the media outlet that, by taking a photo and adding one word to Multisearch – the new search option – the engine will look for the object therein contained and any further detail described in the short text form.
Multisearch will be available in the U.S. as a beta version as of now – available on both iOS and Android – and had been first revealed in September during the company’s Search On Event.
The whole reason behind the new functionality is the difficulties customers face when searching for clothing and garments that they could not easily describe.
“More Than That”
Google’s search director Lou Wang says, “You could imagine you have something broken in front of you, don’t have the words to describe it, but you want to fix it… you can just type ‘how to fix.’”
According to CNN, the new functionality represents the company’s latest endeavor to make searches more user-friendly and less dependent on words on the screen. Multisearch adds to previous image search engines such as Google Lens.
To use the function, users must go on to Google’s mobile app, tap a camera icon on the right-hand side next to the search bar, and deploy Google Lens. There, they just need to upload any picture and add a short text form – a keyword – in a small bar that contains a plus sign and says “add to your search.”
The tech behind Multisearch is mostly artificial intelligence – a Multitask Unified Model, or MUM – as “Computer vision deduces what’s in the image while natural language processing determines the meaning of the words you type.”
The company said it is not working on further ways to do a search – such as using music and words – but more availabilities might launch in the future.
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