14 DAY TRIAL // Mountain View-based Internet giant has just announced the release of a new version of Google Goggles, meant to offer a better and more personal experience to all users.
The new Google Goggles 1.4 for Android brings into the mix an enhanced search history experience, as well as the ability to provide better search results suggestions when not able to accurately match the image. Improved business card recognition was added into the mix as well.
With the new search history experience, one would be able to easily search through Goggles results, to make personal notes on results and even to share results with friends. Every note added to a Goggles result will appear in a user's search history.
“I’m trying to learn more about wine, so when I taste something new, it’s easy for me to add a note to help me remember what I liked about the wine,” Jacob Smullyan, software engineer, Google, explains in a blog post.
“Later, I can search my search history for words in my note to help me find that bottle that went so well with steak.”
These notes should help users better organize their search history, and won't be shared with friends when a search result is. Even so, users would be able to add personalized messages to friends when sharing results with them.
One other new feature in Goggles is the ability to improve the accuracy of search results images, at times when the returned results are not as accurate as one might want them to be.
“With Goggles 1.4, you are now able to suggest a better result when Goggles cannot find an image match, or the quality of the result is poor,” the said blog post reads.
“To send your suggestion to Google, tap 'Can you suggest a better result?' on the results page. You can then select the relevant part of the image and submit a tag. Tags will be used to improve recognition in object categories where Goggles already provides some results, like artwork or wine bottles.”
Another enhancement that Google Goggles received with the new update was aimed at business card recognition, one of the most popular feature of the service, which should deliver a better experience than before.
The new Google Goggles 1.4 for Android is able to recognize the content as text, and also the information as a contact, so that one would be able to easily add the details to the phone's contacts list.
The new version of Google Goggles is compatible with all devices running under Android 1.6 or higher, and can be downloaded through the Android Market here.
