Catching Up with Visual Bing
September 8, 2011
We are not tracking visual search with the assiduity we use for POTS or plain old text search. We use a system to show us approximate matches and then we browse. Visual search is, for us here at the goose pond, more like a “close enough for horse shoes” experience than a search experience.
We do want to document the fact that “Bing Delves Deeper into Visual Search,” announces Search Engine Journal.
We’re now used to getting images and videos in our search results. These projects at Bing, however, aim to put pictures at the other end of the process. Writer Rob D. Young explains”
Bing currently has 88 ‘visual searches.’ Those searches range from the top books to dog breeds to yoga poses and well beyond. Each of these searches comes with an advanced left navigation that lets you see only the images and info that interests you. The Yoga Poses visual search, for example, lets you choose the level of difficulty, the therapeutic purpose, the targeted anatomical area, and more.
Optimization for visual search, says Young, is different from that for text-based searches. Bing taps third parties to decide what content is worthwhile. I think we’ll have to keep an eye on those low-visibility players.
Young envisions a time when the public will be able to create and curate these visual searches. I’m looking forward to it, but my colleagues here at Beyond Search are not impressed. Visual images drag along some interesting copyright and fair use issues. If we use an image for our free blog, we try to provide a link to the source of the image and a happy quacking thank you. If someone objects, we delete the image. Will image search improve by leaps and bounds? Nope, more like a few tentative waddles, then a bit of a rest.
Cynthia Murrell, September 8, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
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