Google Goggles

Mobile searching has just become way, way cooler

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Pros

  • Free, incredibly cool

Cons

  • Doesn't work well with some categories of object at the moment

Bottom Line

Right now, Google Goggles doesn't work well with food, cars, plants, or animals. But that's going to change. Developers say the app will soon be able to recognise plants by their leaves, even suggest chess moves by "seeing" an image of your current board. "We are only scratching the surface of the visual search technology," Google's engineers promise.

Would you buy this?

  • Price

    Free (AUD)

The app worked equally well with a DVD: we photographed the cover of Swingers and received information about the movie, followed by pages of relevant web results.

_2Google_Goggles_Swingers

Google Goggles: The 'Chip-Off-the-Old-Block' Test

How about something a bit more involved? We grabbed a nearby bag of crisps to see if Google Goggles could grab the logo. Once again, no problems. The app saw that the chips were made by Lays and gave us a screen of info about the company.

_3Google_Goggles_crisp_packet

Even an obscure product such as a tub of protein powder seems to work without so much as a hiccup. Google Goggles matched the actual photo to an online image from a retailer's website, then gave us ample info about the stuff.

_4Google_Goggles_protein_powder

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