What is the future of Internet search? Visual Search ?!

Visual search is not a new technology, but rather a new challenge that we all face in the digital environment. How do search engines work, will businesses be able to adapt to the trend, how well are the images optimized on your site? The time has come to answer these questions as well.

Image search is a new business tool that is changing the way people interact with e-commerce and social media platforms. Instead of typing keywords into search engines, the visual search console allows users to identify and find products through photos taken by them or elements of pictures they found in the search engine. There is an increase in visual demand in online stores, fueled by the desire of customers to find new products and brands quickly and easily.

How does visual search work?

Visual search does not work as image search. We do an image search when a user enters a word into the search engine and the search engine displays related images. Even then, the search engine does not recognize the images, only the structured data associated with the image files. Visual search uses an image as a query instead of text (reverse image search is a form of visual search). It identifies objects in the image and then searches for images related to those objects. For example, based on the image of a desk, you will be able to use visual search to buy a desk identical or similar to the one in the image.

What is the growth of visual search?

Visual search technology is constantly improving and the use of visual search is expanding across platforms.

With the new smart, visual search technology included in brand and website applications, as well as enhanced visual search functionality built into platforms like Google, Pinterest, Bing, visual search is changing the image of marketing search as we know it.

“The future of search will be by images, not keywords.”,

With that statement, Pinterest CEO Ben Silberman came out.

Is it really so?

Recent enhancements to visual search technologies from Pinterest, Target, and ASOS platforms make it easy for users to attach images and search for elements within it to reach a product. This saves time, and the convenience this technology brings is an extremely exciting opportunity for e-commerce marketers to improve their performance and multiply the consumer experience.

We need to think about how visual search engines can change their search habits over the next few years, and how brands respond to adapt and compete properly.

ДA Jumpshot and Moz report confirms that visual search is on the rise, with 27% of all searches in 10 major groups being for images.

What is image search technology and how to optimize properly?

We used to write an article about voice search optimization, now we will give guidance on visual search optimization and why it is becoming increasingly important to rank your site in the first position.

Google Lens is part of Google’s portfolio and is one of the image search software. It is an enhanced version of our familiar Google Photo tool. The software uses artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that allow the application to “view” the surrounding objects around us and provide you with information about them. In 2018, the US company confirmed that users can now download it as a standalone application on Google Play. Visual search technology is much more sophisticated than text search, since visual search is the query itself. Search engines have become more intuitive and have a better understanding of image components, resulting in more accurate results and increased interest.
But in order to meet all their criteria and to position ourselves well, we need to stick to a few basic rules:

1. Capture your images with titles that match,the nature of the image and contain at least one keyword. This technique is widely used by site optimizers, but you already have one more reason to name your visual content properly.
   The reason: When indexing an image, the search engine identifies the file name and image and then displays them in the search results.
2. Choose appropriate high quality images that are authentic.This way you will be well positioned. We generate a huge amount of content every day and in order to be in the first position, we need to be original. Search engines encourage the creation of your own and quality content.
3. Size matters. Yes and when it comes to the size of the photos on your web page, for example. No one will take more than 10 seconds to wait for your site to load, however unique it may be. Therefore, when uploading your image content, it is a good idea to keep it “light”. There are countless tunes like Optimizilla or io to compensate for it without losing quality, of course. Remember that from a technical point of view, the better your site loads, the easier it is for search engines to navigate and browse it. And large and heavy images will stumble over you.
4. Select the correct format when saving the image. Remember that each of the formats is used for different types of images and contributes to faster page load and less traffic.

These are a few of the tips we can give you when uploading and optimizing images on your page. To answer the brands, we will provide some statistics and some examples to show the power of visual search.

How do users engage in visual search?/strong>

Pinterest reported that their users performed more than 600 million combined monthly searches using Pinterest Lens technology and now have more image results than keywords.

Pinterest Lens (visual heart technology) provided interesting insights based on the categories of images used in the search engine:

Based on these usage statistics, it seems that brands working in the fashion and home décor industry are the ones most likely to benefit from the visual demand currently.

Casestydies:

Pinterest Lens, which we mentioned above in the article, offers users search through the camera of the smartphone offline. Or, to put it briefly, Pinterest enables users to click on objects they see in the image to shop for products and find something similar.

Increasingly, we see a similar pattern on Instagram.

Asos is a clothing brand that already uses a visual search feature that allows shoppers to find clothes they see outside the store in the catalog, thanks to a Style match. Like Pinterest Lens, the Style match app lets you take a picture of something you want to wear and find similar items in the Asos clothing catalog.
Finally, we will finish with a video of world-renowned clothing brand Tommy Hilfiger and the online shopping campaign Tommyland that they aired in 2017 in the US.

Visual search has the power to change the way people discover, interact, and shop for products around us. And are you ready to respond to the change?