As it seeks to monetize the exploding universe of uploaded images to the Web, which Google says is nearing one trillion, it is developing image processing to more effectively search and organize images. Presently, photos are indexed primarily by text and other metadata.
In May, Google announced plans to begin matching images from its fast-growing Google Image Search with display ads.
Yesterday, Andy and and I met R.J. Pittman, Google’s Director of Product Management for Consumer Search Properties, who was visiting the company’s Manhattan offices.
He said that Google is developing image processing and visual search to crawl the pixels of images. Beyond facial recognition, the company is also developing scene analysis.
Adding to the utility of image search will be geo-tagging, which is already underway with a product called Panaramio.
This is the first of several posts from our chat with R.J. We will be publishing additional segments over the next few days.
–Kelsey Blodget, Associate Producer
Editor’s Note: Very exciting to welcome Kelsey as Associate Producer and co-blogger on Beet.TV She just joined after graduating from Dartmouth where she was an editor at the student newspaper. She was also a guest blogger for Silicon Alley Insider. She is no relation to editor Henry Blodget.
— Andy Plesser
