Wednesday, October 28, 2009

To upload image or not to upload it, that is the question.

Search by uploaded image is one of unique features for gazopa. From search engine provider’s point of view, whether or not to accept uploaded image as a search key is a big issue. If I use a metaphor of baseball to describe these differences, to accept uploaded image is that a batter does not know what kind of ball the pitcher throw, a ball of baseball or a ball of football or a ball of valley ball etc. The batter needs to hit a ball even though a ball is not for baseball. On the contrary, using an indexed image with metadata as a search key rather than using uploaded image is that a batter understands a sign of catcher to pitcher and hits a ball. I think you understand how difficult it is to process uploaded image as a search key from this metaphor.


After reading untl this line, you may say ‘Oh Boys, I don’t care how your technology is better than others and I don’t want to hear about difficult thing your technology is doing. I only care what I can experience from it.’ Yes, you are right. You can enjoy iPod and iPhone even though you don’t know what technologies are used in these gadgets. User experience and whole system that support these experiences is important.


But if you think about cell phone, our strong point sounds more and more meaningful. As you feel in daily life, entering keyword may not be a comfortable experience. Are there any way that can simplify this user interface? Yes, here is the answer. Each cell phone has a camera these days. Imagine, if you just take a picture and use it as a search key, how simple it is? But to take a picture is not enough for starting searches. You need to upload your image from your cell phone. To upload image becomes a critical point now. I think you understand how wonderful feature search by upload is. It’s very intuitive and natural way to use your image as a search key. It’s not a story of technology. It’s a new experience that technology can bring to you.

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