There has been an update to Bing’s iPhone app that now enables image-based search. With this feature, users can now take a picture or use an existing image as the basis of a search. Currently, despite the convenience and potential use of this feature, it seems that it’s also a little hit and miss at the moment.
If you want to use the image search, just touch the search icon on the home screen, and then the camera icon in the lower right of the screen. Use the following image as a guide. A frame around the desired image allows users to expand or narrow the scope of the image being searched. This size change can mean the difference between what item is or isn’t recognized in that image.
This type of image search has been introduced before by others, including Google, who created the “Google Goggles” in 2009 but died off in 2014. Currently, Amazon is allowing users to search for products by image as well.
As I used the feature, things seemed to work fine with the random things I searched for, but others, such as Greg Sterling, found that the accuracy of visual results was mixed. A range of objects were taken by Greg and some items were recognized, while others were “misinterpreted.” The flowers represented in the above image are an example of good results. But when Greg took an images of running orange and blue shes, he got images of of colorful arm tattoos. But after reframing the search field, Bing ended up finally finding shoes.