When Google Lens was first announced a year ago, many pointed out its similarities to the long-abandoned Google Goggles app. Both were designed to identify objects in pictures, but Lens is far smarter thanks to a healthy dose of machine learning.
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Google Goggles has been basically dead since 2014. It had no updates for three years, and what little utility it brought was quickly replaced by other services, or merged into existing apps. Well, now Google has disclosed a worthy successor to the idea in the form of Google Lens. Just announced at I/O, the new system will provide contextual information about things visually, like flowers you take pictures of, or text you point your phone at. This is huge.
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Google's Goggles is all but abandoned now. We've seen Google resurrect apps from the dead and update them after years of neglect, but it's hard to imagine the company putting a fresh coat of paint on Goggles at this point. If only because the app has been superseded by others from Google, with its functionality cut off into little pieces and moved to various places inside the ecosystem.
But that doesn't take away from the fascination and respect that Goggles deserves. It could recognize landmarks before Google Photos, read and translate text before Google Translate, use OCR on images before Now on Tap, and even solve sudoku puzzles, scan and add contacts from a business card, and find and suggest similar products — all options that have yet to be transplanted into any other Google app.
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At the end of last year, a Google Search update came out that added a "Search with Camera" feature. With Google Search, you could fire up your camera, snap a picture of something, and it would do an image search - it was basically Google Goggles integration. Besides the usual Goggles stuff, it was also really useful for scanning QR codes.
But, a few days ago, when the Search 2.5 update hit, "Search With Camera" got kicked to the curb.
On the left is 2.4, on the right is 2.5. In 2.5, the "Search with camera" menu option is gone, and none of the voice commands work - camera search is completely disabled.
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Happy New Year! It's that time again; with the new year comes our new annual prediction post. I tackled this last year, and rather than do a bunch of crazy, pulled-from-thin-air predictions, I ended up with a link-filled research-fest for the year. It worked out pretty well, so that's what's on the docket for today. First though, I'll take a look and see just how many of last year's predictions and rumors came true, and provide some updates for the more important topics.
What a crazy year. 2012 brought us two versions of Jelly Bean: 4.1 and 4.2. We saw a complete transformation of Google Search with the Knowledge Graph, Google Now, voice output, and Google Goggles integration.
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Ok - here's the deal. A Google Search update happened, which means it's teardown time. Normally I post about unreleased, work-in-progress stuff, but Google Now is so context dependent, that it's pretty much impossible for me to tell if something is implemented or not. The one thing I've learned from my months of using Now is that Google Now is in charge, and you're just along for the ride. So, for today's post, we're just going to shoot for "new things that didn't make it onto the 'What's New' list." If you can get them to show up, awesome. Send me a screenshot and I'll update.
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A bunch of new fun stuff is coming down the pipeline, Google-fans! Your favorite search giant has just pushed several updates to some of its headlining properties, including Play Music, Play Magazines, and Google Goggles. We've got the full rundown for you.
For starters, Google Music has added expandable notifications to its repertoire. It doesn't look like you'll see much more info if you expand it, but Play Music continues to be one of the best examples of how to make notifications robust and useful. Also, good news for Google TV owners: if you purchased a newer GTV box (like the Vizio Co-Star), Play Music will now be supported.
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Google Goggles, the app that lets you "search the real world with a picture," just received a pretty major update to version 1.7. The update brings some very cool features, like continuous scan mode, which lets Goggles do its thing without having to constantly hit the shutter button.
One of the coolest new features in this update is enhanced text recognition, which can detect the same text an online document and provide a link directly to the page. The update also brings better search functionality and improved item recognition.
Goggles 1.7 is available now in the Android Market, hit the widget below to grab it.
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Everyone's favorite search-by-picture app, Google Goggles, received an update today that brings a few new features to the table, like better history search with notes support, better business card recognition, and adds the ability to suggest a better result.
Now, when you snap a picture with Goggles, you can add a tag to the photo that becomes searchable within your personal history. For example, if I snap a pic of something and add the tag "this was great!", I can later search my history for the word "great" and get a quick display of both note and photo. Pretty rad, yes?
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