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Last week, Google held its annual I/O developer conference – and in physical form for the first time in two years. Returning to the campus-adjacent Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA for its signature event, it rolled out the standard slate of search, mapping, and AI updates.
Buried in all the keynote action, there was also a notable nugget for AR: Google Lens is now used for 8 billion visual searches per month. That’s 2.5x the volume it achieved last year. To put that in perspective, it’s still miles from the 2 trillion+ total annual Google search queries.
That reality check aside, this growth validates Lens’ broadening capability. Launched initially with promoted use cases around identifying pets and flowers, the eventual goal — in Google fashion — is to be a “knowledge layer” for monetizable searches like shoppable products.
Data Dive: Google Lens is Used 3B Times Per Month
Search What You See
Backing up, what is Google Lens? It’s Google’s visual search play, which means you can point your phone at objects to identify them. Google calls this “search what you see,” or a CTRL+F function – the keyboard shortcut for on-page keyword searches – for the physical world.
But Google isn’t alone in visual search. Its chief competition comes from two places. The first is Pinterest Lens, which is Pinterest’s similar tool that lets you identify real-world items and pin them. The second is Snap Scan which lets Snapchat users identify items for social fodder.
The difference between all these players traces back to their core products and company missions. For example, Google will work towards “all the world’s information” while others zero in on things like food & style (Pinterest), and fun & fashion (Snap). It’s a matter of focal range.
With all the above, anything that involves products is where the opportunity is. The endgame is monetizable visual searches which boils down to “shoppable” items. For example, one Snap Lens use case is “outfit inspiration,” while Google Lens offers local business discovery.
All of these cases tap into the fact that Millennials and Gen Z have a high affinity for the camera as a way to interface with the world. Brand advertisers are likewise drawn to immersive AR marketing. This makes visual search one way these players can future-proof their businesses.
All of the above also accelerates in the Covid era when visual queries can replace the act of touching things — now and in retail’s anticipated “touchless era.” Visual search will meanwhile benefit as consumers gradually acclimate to more visual interfaces and “camera commerce.”
Killer-App Potential
The various approaches outlined above raise the question of what types of products shine in visual search. Early signs point to items with visual complexity and unclear branding. This includes style items (“who makes that dress?”) and pricing transparency in retail settings.
The common thread is shopping (follow the money). Pinterest reports that 85 percent of consumers want visual info; 55 percent say visual search is instrumental in developing their style; 49 percent develop brand relationships; and 61 percent say it elevates in-store shopping.
Another fitting use case is local discovery, as noted. Visual search could be a better mousetrap for the ritual of finding out more about a new restaurant — or booking a reservation — by pointing your phone at it. Google advanced all of the above with last week’s “Multisearch Near Me.”
These are all things that Google is primed for, given its knowledge graph assembled from 20 years as the world’s search engine. This engenders a training set for image matching, including products (Google Shopping) general interest (Google Images), and storefronts (Street View).
To further grease the adoption wheels, Google continues to develop visual search “training wheels.” This includes making Google Lens front & center in well-traveled places and incubating it in web search. This could reduce some of the friction around visual search.
Once user comfort levels are further developed by Google, visual search has killer-app potential. By that we mean it has the makings for a frequently-used and widely-applicable utility (just like web search), with a massive addressable market. We’ll see if it lives up to that potential.
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