Google has beefed up its search algorithms to provide enhanced user experience in the Google+ social network that would facilitate easier searching of photos.
Now, one can search for his photos on both Google+ and Google search, by searching for them directly from the Search bar.
Google Product Manager Matthew Kulick wrote in his blog post that Google is using computer vision and machine learning to help recognize ‘more general concepts in your photos such as flowers, food and sunsets’.
The new feature would help users to search for Google+ photos such as a friend’s wedding photos or pictures from a recent concert.
User will have to be signed into Google for activating this feature. The user can then type the prefix ‘my photos of’ in the search box, followed by the subject of the photo that he is looking for.
A powerful query then searches visual content from user and his friends on Google+ and then returns the results as part of the general results page.
Matthew Kulick in his blog indicated: “Your photos represent some of your most important memories and life events, yet they are increasingly difficult to manage as you build up your photo library, accumulate new devices and make new friends. In many cases, searching for your photos can be challenging because the information you’re looking for is visual”.
One can tag some timeframes while using the new features. For instance, queries for “my photos from last year,” “my photos from two years ago,” “photos from this week”, would work quite well.
It appears that the search results do not come on tags, captions, or other ways to see what is available on a given photo. Google has indicated it is actually analyzing the content of all the particular user’s photos and picks for the user which it feels is relevant to his search.
The new feature has intelligence to search term for extra clues and is capable of making sense of temporal deixis.
However there could be some privacy concerns. Further users may not be sure on the availability of their content. Google has tried to address the problem by making the personal results visible only to the searcher and not the general public.
Currently the new feature is restricted to only search items from Google’s own products such as Google+ and Picasa.
It is felt the new search addition from Google is a part of its master plan to own social.
