Google Lens launches for mobile; promises more info behind photo

Google wants you to search for more than just questions and videos.

Today, Google aims to open up image search on mobile phones by bringing the “Lens,” tool to offer more detail within the photo, like what the product is called, or where to buy. At first, Lens will just be for products. Google says it will expand to other categories in the coming months.

The service is be available in mobile browsers (Chrome, Safari) on Android and Apple smartphones, but not within the Google apps. That will come later in the year.

This isn’t to be confused with the Lens feature that’s currently available on the Google Pixel phones and Android handsets, which is used in conjunction with the camera. On the Android phones, you point the camera at, say, a record album cover (remember those?), and Lens will give you the album’s liner notes or other information.

The new Google Lens shows information about where to buy products shown in image search via mobile browsers (Photo: Google)

Some of those features will be coming to the mobile web as well, says Cathy Edwards, who heads Google’s Image search division. For the new Lens for mobile browsers, consumers look for the white dot in an image that signifies the Google Lens is available on it, and once it’s open, they can use their fingers to draw on specific portions of the image to find what they’re looking for.

Some examples of what you can do with Lens:

– Search for vintage Porsche cars, and Lens will show you other Porsches of that era.

– Find a Porsche image with an open hood, draw a circle around the motor, and find links to buying spare parts.

Google’s new Pixel phones mirror the industry trend moving the devices toward lusher, bigger screens and add new twists on the camera for taking better selfies and other pictures. (Oct. 9) AP

To bring Lens to the mobile web, Google engineers applied artificial intelligence and computer vision to sift through all those billions of photos, and apply a model to make them come to life with information, says Edwards.

Google is rolling out the new tools Thursday morning, beginning on the East coast and expects to have it live across the United States by this evening.