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VISUAL SEARCH
Visual search in the simplest terms is
searching something using its visuals
whether done by human beings with
their eyes or by a machine i.e. computer
vision. Search on the internet has come
a long way from text, voice based,
image search to finally visual search.
In text search, the search is purely based
on the keywords which users are
inputting. One should narrate the
characteristics of the image which one
wants to search on the internet. In some
cases it is a difficult task to express the
characteristics of an image in words.
Voice search was introduced to increase
the ease by eliminating the boring
keyboard typing and allowing users to
search the web using spoken voice
commands.
Divyesh Patel
Image search by google was introduced
on July 12, 2001 due to a demand for
pictures of Jennifer Lopez's green
Versace dress that the regular Google
search couldn't handle.
For the sake of no confusion let’s define
image search and visual search. Image
search is the search for an image using
text or words as query whereas visual
search is finding images using images
as input query. The results depend on
the searched image, its contents, such as
metadata, objects, patterns, distribution
of color, shape, etc.
Author
Although visual search has immense number of applications in various sectors, it has a direct relationship
with fashion and lifestyle industry where products are difficult to put into words and visual search comes
handy. Almost all the big brands in online and offline-to-online retail have realized the potential of visual
search and incorporated it in their shopping platform. A few of these retail giants being Macy’s , Ikea, Tommy
Hilfiger, JCpenney, Target , Forever 21 , ASOS etc. By 2021, early adopter brands that redesign their
websites to support visual and voice search will increase digital commerce revenue by 30% - Gartner.
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