# Visual Search Delivered (by Google Labs)

By [Continuations](https://continuations.com) · 2009-04-21

google labs, google, searching, image search, visual search

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A while back I had argued that there was [great potential for visual search](http://continuations.com/post/65342196/visual-search) now that we have a lot of images available.  Well now someone has delivered and it is [Google Labs with it’s Similar Images prototype](http://similar-images.googlelabs.com/).  In fact, they did exactly what I had proposed in my original post, which was to make this a refinement to the regular search process, [saying](http://continuations.com/post/65342196/visual-search):

> In fact, Google has had a close analogy in text search for a long time.  Results from a search have a link for “similar pages.”

Well now there is “similar images” and it works amazingly well.  First, I tried a search for “[ball](http://similar-images.googlelabs.com/images?hl=en&q=ball&btnG=Search+images)” as there many different kinds of balls.  Not all the results have a “similar images” link yet, but the ones that do produce great results.  Next, because it is near and dear to me because of [Etsy](http://www.etsy.com), I tried a search for “[ring](http://similar-images.googlelabs.com/images?q=ring&b=Search+images)”.  The results of exploring the “similar images” are nothing short of amazing.  Try different ring styles and you will almost always find lots more rings with a very similar basic style but lots of small variations.  I look forward to making ample usage of this.

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*Originally published on [Continuations](https://continuations.com/visual-search-delivered-by-google-labs)*