This article was automatically translated by artificial intelligence. For accurate information, please consult the original English version.
What is Google Lens?
Google Lens is Google's new object recognition tool: an easy shortcut, some call it the "Shazam for objects." A mobile user just needs to show Google Lens a photo to get information about the items present, whether it's a flower, a product, a monument, or a local Business.
The announcement by Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, comes alongside the acceleration of Pinterest and Instagram in e-commerce: these apps allow brands to tag their products directly on photos and integrate links to their sites! Automatic object recognition should be the next step, but it seems Google has already taken the lead.
For your points of sale, concretely, Google Lens will allow mobile users to access your information (reviews, hours, etc.) without a click! Partoo tells you a bit more! 😜
What impact for local businesses?
Google Lens now allows Google Photos users to get information about points of sale, restaurants, or even historical monuments from a simple photo. To recognize the Business in question, Google Lens relies partly on the user's geolocation at the time of the shot and partly on a "computer vision" and "machine learning" algorithm, enabling the technology to identify the Business facade from Google Street View. 🤓
Google then matches this with the Google Maps database to access information included notably in the Google My Business listings: this includes reviews, descriptions, and hours!
While this recognition is currently done from a photo, future applications are endless. Indeed, in the longer term, Business information should be able to display in augmented reality directly on smartphone screens, without taking a photo. Thus, a customer looking for a restaurant on an unknown street could simply get its reviews, hours, or menu without even needing to type anything on their mobile: they would just need to point it at the Business in question!
With these applications, Google My Business will play an increasingly important role in the life of local Businesses: Partoo helps you manage your information on Google My Business, handle your reviews, and also get better ratings to attract more customers! Feel free to contact us via the chat at the bottom right to learn more.
Who will be able to use Google Lens?
If Google Lens was reserved for Pixel users until recently, users of smartphones running Android Oreo 8.0 and 8.1 in English can now benefit from the feature. It will soon be generalized to other Android configurations and Google Photos users! 🚀